大象传媒

A funny thing happened on the way to the 2020s. It鈥檚 that Joe Biden, famous Congressional centrist and lifelong denizen of the Washington, D.C., establishment, is showing himself to be a liberal. And maybe even a鈥� feminist?

That鈥檚 probably too generous for a man remembered for sniffing women鈥檚 hair and giving a pass to allegations of sexual harassment by a Supreme Court nominee. But there is a big difference between how most observers thought Biden would govern, and what he鈥檚 actually done during his first 100 days as the nation鈥檚 chief executive.

President Biden鈥檚 first address to Congress was notable for several reasons. Most obviously, his address was notable for the lack of vindictiveness, racism, outright lies, and bizarre utterances completely divorced from reality that characterized his predecessor.

Right out of the gate, Biden gave a big hint at where his policy proposals were going, when he opened his speech by addressing the two women flanking him: 鈥淢adam Vice President, Madam Speaker鈥擭o president has ever said those words from this podium. No president has ever said those words, and it鈥檚 about time!鈥�

But on substance, too, was chock-full of policy proposals that seemed to originate from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, especially the nearly 40% of that Congressional caucus who are women and have long sought a renewed focus on the social safety net.

Not that there wasn鈥檛 anything to quibble with in Biden鈥檚 address. A lot of the 鈥淎merica is back鈥� messaging had a nationalistic tinge that we should be moving beyond, especially after the past four years of escalating White supremacy. But overall, what we heard was a cohesive agenda that made the case for a massive spending program on social programs that have for too long been neglected.

The centerpiece of Biden鈥檚 speech was the , a $1.8 trillion proposal that focuses on supporting children and families through a variety of universal entitlement programs and tax benefits, all paid for with increased taxes and enforcement on the wealthiest Americans.

The Families Plan follows on Biden鈥檚 other big proposal, the American Jobs Plan (with a $2.3 trillion price tag, also paid for mostly by reorienting the tax code to weigh on the rich).

Together they constitute a drastic redefinition not just of the word 鈥渋nfrastructure,鈥� but of the role of government in American society. The proposals would also be one of the largest investments in the public welfare ever. (The , or $653 billion in 2009 dollars. Many are still running after almost 60 years, and as such they鈥檝e become embedded into the fabric of the modern U.S. government.)

But the important thing the Families Plan does is shine a light on an area where the U.S. has been woefully lacking for decades: social programs, especially those that would ease the financial and emotional burdens placed on women both in and out of the workforce: high-quality child and elder care, universal preschool, wage equity, affordable college education, support for teacher preparation and retention, and much more, including a national paid family leave program.

The U.S. is the only wealthy nation (and ) that doesn鈥檛 have a national paid parental leave program. Offering two years of universal preschool will be a huge benefit for young families with low and moderate incomes, who have been forced into a Sophie鈥檚 choice between leaving work to care for children (and lose income) or shelling out most of the income they make from working for day care鈥攁ssuming they could even find affordable, accessible child care.

This last point has been acutely felt during the COVID-19 pandemic, when, as businesses retrenched or reduced operations and schooling moved into the home, many women鈥攎ore than 2.3 million as of early 2021鈥攋ust .

Whether the Biden administration realizes or not, his proposal offers a more holistic view of the economy, something that has been desperately needed as we watch wealth inequality spiral out of control, and as the conflict between the haves and have-nots provides fuel for a fire threatening to burn down democracy around the world.

It represents a complete repudiation of the neoliberal thinking that has dominated the U.S. and other industrial democracies since 1980. Biden acknowledged as much in his speech to Congress: 鈥淭rickle-down economics has never worked, and it鈥檚 time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out.鈥�

Focusing heavily on the social safety net also brings into focus the that never gets accounted for by mainstream economists.

Kate Raworth, author of the highly influential , made exactly this point in her book, writing, 鈥渕ainstream economic theory is obsessed with the productivity of waged labour while skipping right over the unpaid work that makes it all possible, as feminist economists have made clear for decades.鈥�

One of the earliest of those feminist economists is Hazel Henderson, whom Raworth credits for the inspiration of representing the economic system with an easily graspable image. Henderson , in which nature and this unpaid labor sector (what she calls the 鈥渓ove economy鈥�) comprise the bottom half of the global industrial economy, on top of which rests the layers of the cash-based economy, including underground economy, public sector spending, and the 鈥渋cing鈥� of the private sector. Commonplace economic measures like the Gross Domestic Product do not account for half of all economic activity, Henderson鈥檚 model shows.

Another example of articulating this discrepancy in our economic thinking was a paper by Anna Coote of the New Economics Foundation and Neva Goodwin of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, in which they argue that a 鈥�, to one that prioritizes well-being, depends on the 鈥渃ore economy,鈥� which are the people and resources that 鈥渃omprise and sustain social life鈥�:

鈥淭hey are 鈥榗ore鈥� because they are central and essential to society. They underpin the market economy by raising children, caring for people who are ill, frail, and disabled, feeding families, maintaining households, and building and sustaining intimacies, friendships, social networks, and civil society. They have a key role, too, in safeguarding the natural economy, since everyday human behaviours and lifestyles strongly influence the way we use environmental resources. If we get it right, a thriving core economy will provide essential resources for a well-being system that is fit for the future.鈥�

This new re-envisioning of economic activity seeks to capture not just the value of monetary transactions, but the value of all labor, of all resources, and of all kinds of capital, including social capital.

How much of a difference that expanded definition of economic activity may make remains unknown, precisely because we have only recently begun to try to measure it. But one 2019 Salary.com survey of U.S. mothers found that, if they were paid the going hourly rate for their daily roles as housekeeper, day care teacher, and van driver (among many others), .

We don鈥檛 often hear about that wage gap.

The current representatives and senators, 26.5% of the total membership and the highest number it鈥檚 ever been. That still places the United States pretty low down on the in their legislatures. And up until now, women鈥檚 influence over policymaking at the federal level has been sporadic at best, and nearly nonexistent before the 1980s.

In putting forth an ambitious plan to invest in the country鈥檚 social safety net, it looks like Biden鈥檚 administration, if not the president himself, has recognized the need to redress this historic snubbing of more than half the U.S. population.

For one thing, it鈥檚 good for the economy, because if 40 years of unfettered market capitalism have taught us anything, it鈥檚 that .

But for another, as the U.S. continues to wake up to its many failures to embody the principles for which it purports to stand, we can look at the American Families Plan as a significant step toward a fairer and more just nation. After all, it鈥檚 about time.