‘Why doesn’t she just leave?’ is the subtext for so many conversations about women in the work world. Whether it is a woman being abused or assaulted at work, not being paid equitably, being subject to racism, sexism, ageism or just exhausted the question seems to lurk – why doesn’t she just leave?
She doesn’t leave because her job is the only way she can have affordable health insurance for her and her family, which might include kids with special medical or developmental issues.
The systemic issue that isn’t addressed in these conversations is that in a country with a broken health care system and for-profit insurance companies who are making money while preventing us from accessing the healthcare we have a human right to, many of us are chained to our jobs because we need insurance.
Don’t talk about quiet quitting or complain that younger workers aren’t as committed or are entitled. Why should anyone devote themselves to a job that can, in a moment, make them and tens of thousands of others unemployed and without health insurance? Helpful LinkedIn posts are not a social safety net.
