It's a year since COVID first hit the United States, sending people's personal lives in the economy into free fall.

We're in a deep hole with respect to the job market and a long way to dig out. In a first, female workers have been measurably impacted more than men during this downturn.

Millions have lost their jobs in what's been referred to as a she session.

And it was hitting women in a way that we had never seen before.

At the same time, women are disproportionately carrying the burden of school shutdowns and nursery closures.

Guess who's more likely to be working? and And some of those still at work are also paying a high price.

The reversal of hard-won victories in gender employment, pay, and representation.

In one year, the pandemic has put decades of the progress we've collectively made for

women workers at risk. Kamala Harris becoming Vice President marked a

progressive milestone in gender equality.

But the COVID crisis has underscored just how incomplete that revolution remains.

I'm Netta Tofik, and this is part one of the empty desk, COVID women and the US out at the BBC is that we don't just report on stories, but we often live them too. I certainly feel that way

about this topic. Like many women, COVID has affected my work, my family, and with it it my identity.

As a career-driven individual who is also a mother of two,

I've been stressed on all sides,

concerned that I'm not pulling my weight enough at work

during one of the most consequential moments in recent history.

Boat, boat.

Boat, you got it.

All right, Nickyale's turn.

At the same time, falling short at at home having two young children who are nine and five years old and still remote learning has posed its own challenges for their development.

For instance getting my preschooler to concentrate and engage with the teacher

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