While reading the IDS 'small print/whoops!' article on Politics.co I spotted this in the corner of my eye.
www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2020/08/06/forget-about-masks-the-real-covid-culture-war-has-only-just
The most visible problem, of course, will be economic. Returning to normality doesn't simply mean going back to pubs and restaurants, but also workplaces. Significantly, nobody is being forced to go to the pub, but some employees are being forced back to their jobs – even if they consider them unsafe. Hundreds of thousands of people with health risks or anxiety are now facing two unenviable outcomes: a situation where they cannot return to economic activity while their colleagues are, or where they are in fact dismissed from work altogether.
The former will breed a two-tier society where people are, through no fault of their own, trapped in a form of work paralysis, denied the pleasures and rewards of their jobs, and prevented from progressing with their careers. The latter will be a form of outright – yet lawful – discrimination, and could bring rapid poverty. Both will create not only a social stratification but also a monetary one, where those with fewer health problems or anxieties also end up richer and with better careers. Economists have talked of a K-shaped recovery, where some groups quickly rebound while others move in the opposite direction.
Welcome to the world of women of childbearing age, Jonathan Lis, the world where those who bear babies end up poorer, denied advancement in their careers, and if you are single and a mother, outright poverty.
There is a part of me that wants to tilt my head to one side and say, 'Cry about it'. It's as if the author has never heard of the Mommy Track.