Helaine Olen in today's WaPo, commenting on the myth being resurrected by the misogynistic right-wing, and providing an appropriate coda to Mothers Day:
"The April unemployment numbers showed that women got hit very hard. Almost all of the job gains went to men. The female workforce remains where it was in the late 1980s.
The increased burdens of family in the covid-19 pandemic play a major role in this. Many schools, after-school programs and child-care centers remain closed, or not open for full-time, in-person learning. Someone needs to take care of the kids at home. And, yes, mothers are taking on the bulk of the responsibilities, as they almost always do.
As if on cue, a lousy old myth about women, motherhood and work is making a return, too: that many of these women are better off for cutting their (paid) work hours and downscaling their professional aspirations in favor of tending to family responsibilities. [snip]
The Biden administration, to its credit, looked at the pandemic ground situation and concluded that tending to humans was as much a part of our societal infrastructure as building and maintaining roads and bridges, and it is now proposing to expand federal funds for universal pre-K.
But Republicans and conservatives are using the sentiment of the old opt-out movement to attack President Biden and the help he wants to offer American parents." (our emphasis)
We've always felt that the right-wing's problem with women in the workplace / equal pay / feminism is that they fear competition / subordination, and are less frightened by life when women are playing roles they consider "traditional", i.e., barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Those views didn't die with Phyllis Schlafly. Those views are even more sinister now, as women are often the main or sole breadwinners, and have professional goals in life just as their male counterparts do.
BONUS: Michel Martin at NPR interviews Labor Secretary Walsh focusing on how the recovery depends on getting women back in the workforce -- and providing for their family needs at the same time.
