But there are two particularly troubling indicators that women’s status has worsened in the US: maternal mortality, and political violence against women. “The rise in political violence against women is no coincidence, these threats are meant to remove power from women,” says the National Women’s Law Centre. Canada is the preferred destination for emigration (11 per cent), weirdly echoing the choice for young women fleeing the US in the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Since January, more than 450,000 women have dropped out of the US labour market, with the surge driven largely by women with young children and black women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Margaret E Ward is a New Yorker, leadership consultant, a disillusioned Democrat and a contributor to The Irish Times
