Some people claim that roads and bridges are the only real infrastructure.

That is a big mistake.

Of course, it is easy to see the consequences of underfunded infrastructure when we look at the crumbling bridges and pothole-ridden roads all around us. We understand that when our physical infrastructure breaks down, we lose the opportunity to go to work, to build things, and to grow our economy.

But caregiving is just as important to our economy (open in new tab) as physical infrastructure, and just as underfunded. Yet, like many issues that disproportionately affect women, especially women of color, it is continually de-prioritized.

This fact was exposed last year when the cracks in the caregiving infrastructure could no longer be ignored. Having spent my career working for working mothers, I witnessed a generation of progress for women go down the drain as the lack of affordable care and paid leave forced more than 2.3 million women (opens in new tab) to leave the workforce altogether to care for sick family members or out-of-school children The women were more than half of them Black and Latina. More than half of them were black and Latina women (opens in new tab). As a result, women's participation in the workforce is the lowest it has been since 1988, when I began my career.

While unpaid caregivers have sacrificed their careers, paid caregivers have worked on the front lines of the pandemic without protection, support, or adequate pay. They have also experienced incredible financial hardship. One in six caregivers lost their jobs because parents left their children at home during the pandemic (opens in new tab), contributing to stubbornly high unemployment rates among black and Latino women. We all rely on care at some point in our lives, but care providers are mostly women, and about one-third of them are black women (opens in new tab).

Our broken care infrastructure has disproportionately harmed women, but fixing it benefits everyone. President Biden yesterday announced the American Families Plan (opens in new tab). This is the third part of the Build Back Better Agenda (opens in new tab), which includes the American Rescue Plan (opens in new tab) and the American Jobs Plan (opens in new tab). $1.8 trillion investment in care and education over 10 years call for and focus on child care and paid family leave, universal pre-kindergarten and funding for two years of free community college for all Americans, including DREAMers. These investments, coupled with the $400 billion proposal in the American Jobs Plan (open in new tab) for home and community-based care for the elderly and disabled, will revolutionize the way we care for each other in this country.

According to a TIME'S UP Now study (opens in new tab), investments in the long-term care sector would create millions of new jobs and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity. The time for policymakers to act is ticking, as the aging population makes the long-term care crisis even more acute: between 2016 and 2060, the number of adults over 65 is expected to nearly double (opens in new tab), while the ratio of caregivers to those in need of care is expected to decline sharply

PANDEMIC CAREER SURVEILLANCE.

The pandemic was a wake-up call. It is clear that without a functional caregiving system, we cannot operate as a society in the 21st century. A society where women do not have to choose between pursuing a career and caring for their children and loved ones, where elders and people with disabilities can live in comfort and dignity, and where caregivers are respected and given the support they deserve. We now have a champion for women in the White House and a Democratic majority in Congress.

It means investing in affordable, quality care for children, the elderly, and the disabled so that millions of women can return to the workforce. It means creating millions of well-paying jobs in the long-term care sector and investing in those jobs so that paid caregivers are paid family-supporting wages. It also means creating a comprehensive paid medical and family leave program to ensure that people have the flexibility to care for themselves and their loved ones when needed without losing their livelihood.

It is not a political trick to call caregiving an infrastructure, although conversations over the past few weeks may have suggested otherwise. It is about recognizing what our society needs to operate in an economically healthy manner, especially for women and women of color. President Biden's American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan are evidence of this. [Both are part of the infrastructure that sustains our society and are essential to a fair and sustainable economic recovery. Now is the time for Congress to act.