 TITLE: Women and Credit 2021: How the Pandemic Affected Women’s Lives—and Finances CONTENT: What Women Are Saying About Money in 2020\n-----------------------------------------\nBut even among women who lost jobs, some have taken the chance to pursue paths they might not have otherwise.\nMargo Gabriel, 34, was laid off from her job as a finance assistant at MIT in Boston in February 2020. She had worked there for about five years, and her first step upon learning of her layoff was to seek work in other departments at the university—only to find, when the pandemic hit weeks later, that those positions were suddenly much harder to come by.\n\"When I lost my job, I was so embarrassed,\" she says. \"I had to really come to terms with separating my identity from my job.\"\nGabriel had planned to travel to Lisbon, Portugal, in December 2020, but after losing her job, she decided to take a leap and move to Lisbon in the fall instead. She now makes a living as a writer and editor for U.S. publications in Lisbon, continuing work she had done on the side while working for MIT.\nAcross the world, outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, Rachel Kramer Bussel, 45, also made some changes as a result of the pandemic. In 2020, knowing her expenses would be far reduced due to canceled travel plans, Bussel cut her nonessential expenses drastically. As a result, she paid off the remaining $35,000 of a total $80,000 in tax debt she had accrued and was slowly eliminating via a monthly payment plan.\n\"If there wasn't the pandemic and I had done all my weddings and travel that I was going to throughout the year, I wouldn't have been able to pay it off plus do all those things,\" Bussel says. \"And I know I wouldn't have canceled them just to save money.\"\nThere's no single story that illustrates how COVID-19 has affected women in the U.S., and the many consequences of the pandemic will take more time to unravel. But as vaccines become commonplace and travel begins again, there is hope that more women will have the chance to pursue their goals, financial and otherwise, with the pandemic behind them. END