Things are going from bad to worse for working parents

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July 15, 2020

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Ivanka Trump wants us to #FindSomethingNew, Oprah invests in oat milk, and the plight of working parents amid the pandemic is only getting more dire. Take it easy on yourself this Wednesday.

– From bad to worse. In April, parenting benefits platform Cleo polled a group of working parents of young kids to see how they were holding up as childcare providers and pre-schools shut down. The answer? Not great!

At the time, 6% said they expected that they would need to leave their jobs in order to care for their children, half said they currently had some form of childcare, and 53% said they expected to change up their current situation in order to get more help from family members.

Those numbers aren’t good, but when Cleo repeated the poll in June, they found something alarming—if not entirely surprising: the situation had gotten much worse.

In the new poll, which Emma covered in detail, a full 27% of respondents said they expect to have to leave the workforce, just 35% have some form of non-parental childcare, and only 28% managed to get family help.

Yikes. It’s not hard to imagine these stats continuing to deteriorate. With summer camps struggling, 40% of U.S. childcare providers saying they expect to close their doors permanently, and schools unlikely to return to anything close to normal in the fall, there’s little relief in sight.

What would it take to give parents a light at the end of the tunnel? Big changes: more Congressional support for the childcare industry, clear safety guidance for schools and caretakers, flexible work schedules and paid leave—the list goes on.

In the meantime, to all our working parent readers—we see you! Let us know what we should be covering that would be helpful for you. And to those who manage or work with parents (probably all of us), now’s a great time to offer support, check in, or just cut them a break!

Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee

Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Get well soon, RBG. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized on Monday night with a fever and chills, said to be a possible infection. A Court spokeswoman said the justice underwent a procedure to have a bile duct stent cleaned out and will stay in the hospital for a few days. CNN

- The Maine event. In last night's elections, Maine state House Speaker Sara Gideon won her Senate Democratic primary—meaning she will take on Sen. Susan Collins in November. Veteran MJ Hegar won the Senate Democratic primary runoff in Texas, setting her up to compete against Sen. John Cornyn. CNN

- Equal pay at the top. Former Bridgewater co-CEO Eileen Murray is in drawn-out negotiations with the hedge fund over her exit package, which an anonymous adviser tells Bloomberg was significantly less than comparable male executives have been offered in the past. Bridgewater says the claims are "loaded with inaccuracies." Bloomberg

- Brand new. Ivanka Trump is the face of a new White House campaign in partnership with the Business Rountable: #FindSomethingNew. The hashtag encourages people who are out of a job—amid the pandemic's high unemployment—or dissatisfied at work to seek out a new job or passion. Vanity Fair

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Cheryl Miller won't return as CEO of AutoNation after her medical leave. Writer and editor Bari Weiss left the New York Times.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

- Oprah goes oats. Oprah Winfrey, Natalie Portman, and other investors are backing the oat milk brand Oatly. The sale of a 10% stake for $200 million values the alternative milk producer at $2 billion. Wall Street Journal

- Kiwi matchup. New Zealand's general election in September will feature two female candidates, with conservative Judith Collins taking on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Ardern is enjoying record popularity following her successful response to the coronavirus crisis and is expected to win in the fall. Guardian

- Riding the wave? Twenty former staffers for the National Organization for Women, the American Association of University Women, and the Feminist Majority Foundation say that the organizations rooted in second wave feminism have not made space for women of color. The Lily

- Failing women. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon died by suicide last week after a personal assistant filed a sexual harassment and abuse claim against him. The claim—against an official who was the second most powerful man in South Korea and was known as an ally of feminist groups—will not be investigated after Park's death. That decision fails Korean women, writes E. Tammy Kim. New York Times

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