More than half a million Black women have exited the labor force since the pandemic began. “When Black women are pushed out of the labor force,” gender economist Katica Roy wrote, “we all lose.” The compounded effect of racism and sexism is explored in a new book by award-winning Harvard economist Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman. In The Double Tax, Opoku-Agyeman explores the myriad ways that being a woman results in higher costs and highlights the vast differences between white and Black women’s experiences.
When thinking about her motivations behind writing the book, Opoku-Agyeman shared, “Information is all over the place. Academic research is behind a paywall so unless you’re subscribed, you don’t get access to the cutting-edge research that’s coming out. I wanted to ensure that the data was all in one place, and that the stories that back those data up were also all in one place. If people read this book, they have a starting point, a foundation, for which they can start having these conversations.”
The foreword of the book was written by Chelsea Clinton, with Opoku-Agyeman explaining that her and Clinton have partnered in the past on events related to Black women. “I think [Chelsea] has been committed to an overall agenda focused on women and girls,” Opoku-Agyeman shared. “I think this is actually a conversation that the book also gets at too. A lot of women’s spaces, I’m learning, do not really see women of color as women too. They see us as like racial minorities. I think that’s also kind of why I wanted to bring Chelsea in. I wanted people to realize, this is not just a book for Black women and girls and women of color who I know are going to read this book and who I’m encouraging to read this book, but also white women should absolutely pick the book up.”
Using a wealth of data and research, Opoku-Agyeman makes a compelling case for how Black women incur higher costs when it comes to things like job opportunities, salaries, housing costs, childcare access, and generational wealth. What was most surprising to Opoku-Agyeman when writing the book was the astronomical costs incurred by mothers. “The chapter about motherhood, like changed my brain chemistry. I don’t think we’re having an honest conversation across the nation about how expensive it is to be a parent in America. People are telling folks to have more kids…nobody’s talking about the price point. I think the most shocking price tags I saw in this book were related to the price of childcare. If you want really high-quality childcare, this is like a really big chunk out of people’s income…society punishes moms who choose motherhood and women who don’t.”
Opoku-Agyeman went on to explain how the exorbitant costs of childcare in the United States disproportionately impacts Black women. “These costs disproportionately impact Black mothers, who tend to be breadwinners. It’s not just that you’re taking a share of the Black mom’s income, but the Black mom tends to be the one who’s paying the bills. Just seeing how these costs compound across your life is crazy to me.” The double tax also shows up poignantly in the workplace. Opoku-Agyeman explained how occupational segregation, which is the pattern of a certain demographic being overrepresented in a particular occupation or job sector, pushes women into certain careers. When you look at the lowest paid careers, she explained, “Black women are overrepresented in eight out of 10 of the career paths.” Even as an economist, Opoku-Agyeman was still flabbergasted by the data. “It’s 2025. This is the 21st century. We got powerful computers in our palms. Y’all are not using floppy disks anymore but y’all can’t pay women an equal amount of money. What are we doing here?”
The double tax isn’t just an American phenomenon. Organizational culture consultant Abi Adamson explained how the double tax impacted her growing up in London. “I lost a pay raise I was owed because I dared to push back when my manager conducted an inappropriate review, and the CEO admitted he was punishing me for upsetting his favorite employee. That was one company. At another, I’d finally secured a senior leadership role I’d worked years toward, only to find myself the only Black woman on the team and the only Black employee in the business. Four days a week, I’d sit in a central London coffee shop, crying into overpriced lattes because those nine weeks became a barrage of racial slurs dressed up as banter.”
Although it may seem like the double tax is just a problem Black women should be concerned about, Opoku-Agyeman emphasized how fixing the double tax would benefit everyone else. “The best outcome for Black women is a better outcome for everyone else. So, if Black women are the tide that lifts all boats, if you’re in a boat that’s in a higher tide, you’re also being lifted essentially, right? The double tax says, ‘before we get there, we need to understand why Black women are the benchmark to begin with.’ So, this compounded cost of racism and sexism is really borne by Black women, in particular. We are really, I would say, the best economic indicator for what’s coming next. If you’re not tackling our problems, it’s going to become a bigger problem for everybody else.”