Sojourner Truth Radio

Today on Sojourner Truth, we focus on the intersection between caregiving and poverty. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the U.S. government has been distributing checks to people in order to stop the economy from collapsing. However, it still refuses to consider providing an income for family caregivers, whose work is generally depended on and has increased as a result of the pandemic. Family unwaged caregivers " most of whom are women, including mothers and grandmothers, and the most impoverished women on welfare " provide care for relatives, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities. Amid this crisis, they are expected to pick up the slack without any acknowledgement of the value or resources for their work. The International Labor Office has estimated that women do two-thirds of the world's work for five percent of the income. And according to a report released by Oxfam in January 2020, women around the world perform 12.5 billion hours of unpaid labor every day. Overall, the wor