The global pandemic is hard on everyone. But it’s especially hard on women.
The ill and dying, and those watching their loved ones suffer, are of course experiencing the worst of it (by many magnitudes). But I’m talking about those who don’t have the virus, and are simply trying to soldier on under dramatically new and stressful circumstances. Among this group, it appears that women are bearing the brunt.
This is not news to me — I’d be willing to vouch for it, personally, based on my own experience and that of my friends. But a flurry of recent articles supports the argument that women are taking hits from every side. For example, a Forbes interview with Lori Sokol, a journalist with expertise on issues related to women, touches on these salient facts:
Sokol also mentions that at home, even in these “enlightened” times, women still perform over 76% of unpaid caregiving work. An article in Working Mother hits this particular nail on the head with its title alone: Working Moms’ Chores Have Almost Doubled to 65 Hours a Week During the Pandemic.
The article admits that working dads’ chores have also doubled, but since the men started out spending just 25 hours/week on household chores and caregiving pre-pandemic — compared to women’s 35 hours — it hardly adds up to the same thing. Not surprisingly, almost half the women surveyed in the study Working Mother describes reported that their additional responsibilities at home interfered with their work performance, and more than a third said they were concerned about their performance reviews.
Another, even more expressively titled Working Mother article, ‘Clusterbomb,’ ‘Catastrophe,’ ‘Disaster’: Experts Predict a Dire Fall for Working Moms, reports that 50% of childcare centers have now closed — and experts predict that many of these will never have the resources to re-open. Disaster, indeed — and one that will have ramifications for women lasting well beyond the day we kick this whole Covid thing. (For those who will jump in to say this should affect dads as much as moms: I refer you to the previous paragraph.)
Finally, an article in The Lily makes plain the far-reaching aftershocks of this cumulative earthquake. According to various experts and studies cited:
“There’s going to be an erosion of that willingness to provide flexibility at work, and as employers call parents back to work, and the childcare and homecare needs remain, we’re going to see increased attrition — either forced, when women are pushed out of the workforce because they’re not being seen as meeting their productivity goals — or voluntary, because they can’t manage the pressure of all of the unpaid work on top of their paid responsibilities.”
Because the promise of gender equality has never been fully realized, it was probably inevitable that such a catastrophic event would disproportionately set women back. And many of the problems women face can only be addressed through public policy and targeted social initiatives. Yet there are still some things employers can do to stave off the worst of these effects:
The deck is stacked against women right now, and no single effort is going to change that. But employers can play an important role in inching us toward a brighter, more equitable future.