Working-class families are not an abstraction. They are parents deciding whether child care is worth the cost of returning to work, workers stretching a paycheck across rent and groceries, caregivers, retail employees, hospitality workers, educators, and neighbors trying to keep up with rising utility and health care bills.

Too often, political conversations about “working-class voters” leave out the many women who make up this workforce and carry so much of a family’s financial and care responsibilities.

Economic justice means listening to people’s lived experience—and advancing policies that make it possible not only to work, but to live with dignity: affordable housing, fair wages, accessible child care, reliable health care, and utility costs families can afford.