The journalist and author Lauren McKeon discusses her new book Women of the Pandemic: Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19 (McClelland & Stewart, 2021), with Joseph Planta.
Women of the Pandemic: Stories from the Front Lines of COVID-19 by Lauren McKeon (McClelland & Stewart, 2021).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Women of the Pandemic
Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British
Columbia, at
TheCommentary.ca.
again. She has just written a new book, Women of the Pandemic: Stories from
the Front Lines of COVID-19. It’s a great chronicle of the early days of
the pandemic, and not just a look back, but a necessary view onto the roles
that women have played in the year 2020 and beyond. We see the women who lead
the public health authorities in Canada, as well as the nurses, doctors,
personal support workers, cashiers, long-haulers, cooks, and many others. We
see in their work, how it also doesn’t stop when their work hours end. There’s
overtime, as well as the work outside of work, whether it’s caring for children
or parents, or both, not to mention encountering hate, racism, as well as being
grossly underpaid. These portraits of the women that Lauren interview provide
marvelous insight into the work that is important, as well as undervalued. Will
our idea of what a front line worker is change as a result of the last eighteen
or more months? Will the token gestures of ‘hero pay’ or 7pm cheers result in
lasting change? These are questions that are asked in the book, as well as considered
while reading the book. Women who have been impacted by the pandemic have been
overrepresented negatively. That effect is something that’s looked at in the
book. It’s necessary we not only honour the women here, but also look at the
lasting change that ought to result, like seeing women in leadership roles, as
well as seeing the definition of leadership change. Lauren McKeon is deputy
editor of Reader’s Digest Canada, and the author of No More Nice Girls,
and F-Bomb, which she was first on the program with back in 2017. This new
book is published by McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome back to the Planta:
On the Line program, Lauren McKeon; Ms. McKeon, good morning.
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