Economy & Labor Archives

Baby formula marketing practices are still too aggressive, WHO report finds

The baby milk formula shortage in the United States has overshadowed fresh scrutiny over the industry’s dubious marketing. Globally, experts warn that these companies have long employed predatory marketing in order to maximize the purchase of formula at the expense of breastfeeding.

Related: The loneliest lactation consultant in the world

by Melissa Chan

Co-published with Foreign Policy

Reporter’s Notebook: Women’s invisibility in climate stories erase their narratives. The result is bad policy

According to official government statistics, 75.7% of rural women in India are engaged in agriculture. But in article after article, farmers are often exclusively portrayed as men. With the changing climate hitting the agriculture sector hard, women’s invisibility in media coverage leaves their distress unacknowledged.

by Disha Shetty

Reporter’s Notebook: A toxic trash site in Kenya is making women sick

While it’s understood that exposure to the toxic chemicals found on dumpsites can result in cancer, respiratory problems and skin infections, relatively little attention has been paid to their impact on the reproductive health of…

by Louise Donovan

Financial Pandemic: 'Everything is harder now'

Asencia Tuamana, 55, started “Bello Horizonte,” a communal kitchen, in September 2020 to share resources during a nationwide lockdown that left millions of Peruvians with no income. She serves as many as 140 people during the week — even as rising costs make her daily work increasingly more difficult.

by Jimena Ledgard

Co-published with Nation

Financial Pandemic: ‘Sri Lanka is not a country for poor people now’

Cooking has become an act of danger for a Sri Lankan woman who can no longer afford to safely heat her stove. As gas prices more than double, kerosene and firewood, more affordable but hazardous, are the next viable option. Read Feroza Hussein’s story on how the country’s economic crisis has permeated all aspects of her life.

by Rathindra Kuruwita

Co-published with the Nation

Financial Pandemic: As living costs spiral in Kenya, a mother sacrifices to spare family from ‘dire times’

With food prices soaring to over 12% over the past year, the economic repercussions of the pandemic are being heavily felt across Kenya. Women are particularly vulnerable.

by Agatha Gichana

Co-published with the Nation

‘We have to fight back.’ Afghan women are losing their hard-won right to work under the Taliban

Afghan women's participation in the workforce rose steadily in the 20 years after the Taliban were ousted from government. Since they returned to power, those gains have been rapidly eroding. Now activists fear a new edict mandating the burqa in public could destroy them altogether.

by Zahra Nader

Co-published with TIME

‘I can’t keep this baby’: Pregnant Ukrainian refugees struggle to get abortion care

Poland has become a place of refuge for millions of women fleeing war in Ukraine. It also has some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, posing a major challenge to refugees with unwanted pregnancies. Some have survived rape, others simply cannot imagine taking on the responsibility of a child while their futures are so uncertain.

by Hanna Kozlowska

Co-published with The Cut

‘Every shift, we’re just barely making it’: What nurses want us to know about the South’s COVID crisis

The pandemic didn’t create the nursing plight in the South, but burnout and low pay have made it worse.

by Erica Hensley

This story was co-published with Reckon.

In rural India, stricken by pandemic, necessity of invention fills in for the state: Reporter’s Notebook

A short news clip about the mysterious deaths of two women in a home they shared with their family took reporter Puja Changoiwala on a journey through a COVID-ravaged landscape in rural India.

by Puja Changoiwala

Analysis: India is building a women-only social safety net

Political parties across India have promised a host of new social programs exclusively for women. Is it politics or progress?

by Mahima Jain

This story was co-published with Foreign Policy.

In the Sundarban, climate change has an unlikely effect — on child sex-trafficking

Child trafficking is on the rise in one of the most climate vulnerable places on earth—revealing blind spots in climate policy, experts tell contributor Ritwika Mitra.

by Ritwika Mitra

Co-published with The Wire

COVID ‘crisis moment’ for families with children in NYC pre-K and 3K programs

Ten-day quarantines are forcing families to keep young kids home, causing chaos for those in need of child care — regardless of negative COVID test results.

by Jessica Washington

This story was co-published with THE CITY.

Ghosts of racist boarding school era still haunt Minnesota’s foster care system, Indigenous mothers say

For many Native mothers, the fear of having their children ripped away from them and the ripple effects of generations of forced family separations remain omnipresent.

by Jessica Washington

Co-published with Mother Jones, with support from the USC Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism National Health Journalism Fellowship

She made jeans for Americans. When they stopped shopping, she turned to sex work

As the garment sector—one of the Lesotho’s largest employers—crumbles during the coronavirus pandemic, a 30-year-old factory worker turns to sex work to make do.

by Refiloe Makhaba Nkune, Louise Donovan

Co-published with TIME

Violence spikes as Myanmar garment workers say factories are colluding with the junta

With tensions rising in alleged military-linked factories, brands such as Mango and Zara have cut ties in recent months. But at what cost to the mostly female workforce?

by Maung Moe, Louise Donovan

Co-published with VICE World News

Women With Children Having Harder Time Re-entering NYC Workforce

A new study shows 41% of women living with kids in New York Ci are not working compared to 24% of men with children — a lingering effect of remote school and a perpetual child…

by Eileen Grench, Jessica Washington

This story was published in partnership between THE CITY and The Fuller Project.

Why There Hasn’t Been A Mass Exodus Of Teachers

Much has been reported about the “she-cession,” how women have left the workplace in disproportionate numbers. Journalist Rebecca Klein investigates why that hasn’t happened among teachers.

by Rebecca Klein

This article was published in partnership with FiveThirtyEight and The Fuller Project.

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