“The 360” shows different perspectives on the main stories and debates of the day.
What is happening
Women experienced a disproportionate share of the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, about 2.4 million women left the job market. Vice President Kamala Harris last month called this exodus “a national emergency”.
Women are more likely to work in sectors such as retail and hospitality, sectors that were most affected by the roadblocks. The increase in childcare obligations, caused by the closure of schools and daycare centers, has also had a disproportionate impact on working mothers. In September alone, when many schools resumed distance learning, 865,000 women left the labor market. Many may never return. A survey found that one in four working women considered changing careers or giving up entirely because of the pandemic.
Women have made steady progress towards equality in the workplace in recent decades, but many experts fear that these gains have been erased by the pandemic. “COVID took a crowbar in the gender gap and opened it up,” an economist told the New York Times. The past year has also undermined the cause of racial equality, as job losses have been more concentrated among black women.
Why there is debate
The economy is expected to gradually improve as vaccination rates rise in the coming months, but some experts argue that it may take years for women to reclaim the lost ground without a concerted effort to help bring them back into the labor market.
Some argue that the pandemic has created an opportunity for companies to reform policies that have historically hindered the advancement of women, especially mothers. Companies could create more employment opportunities for women by continuing to allow flexible hours and optional remote work after the end of the pandemic. Some have also asked companies to create programs specifically geared towards recruiting women who have been expelled from the labor market, as well as retraining plans for women whose jobs may never return.
One of the most critical steps, many say, is to ease the childcare burden that has forced so many mothers to choose between working and caring for their children. This starts with supporting schools so they can reopen as quickly as possible, but it can also extend to government funding to help parents pay for childcare in the coming years.
Others say that any recovery effort aimed at women should make supporting black women a priority. Women will never achieve equality without addressing the longstanding inequities that leave so many people of color vulnerable in the first place, they argue.
What is the next
The $ 1.9 trillion Democrats’ stimulus package includes funding to support the reopening of schools, support day care centers and send parents a monthly allowance – all measures that could help more women return to the job market. The bill could become law this week if the changes made by the Senate are approved by the Chamber of Deputies.
Perspectives
Women must be the main focus of the national economic recovery
“We cannot recover all the losses we made in terms of the number of women who left their careers, who did not raise their hand for that promotion, who had to continue food stamps or live with their parents. We will never go back [to where we were] unless we start to defend ourselves [and] start pushing for an economic recovery that puts us at the center. ”- Reshma Saujani, CEO of Girls Who Code, for NBC News
Opening schools and daycare centers is essential
“When mothers do not have a safe place to leave their children and no one to intervene, they cannot work. And the longer the closing of schools and daycare centers lasts, the more their work skills atrophy – a phenomenon that can permanently remove many Latinas and black women from the workforce, increasing the negative economic impact of the pandemic. ”- Luisa Blanco, Bloomberg
Flexible schedules should remain after the end of the pandemic
“Business leaders must reevaluate workplace standards to increase the flexibility of working life for all employees. These policies were implemented to accommodate a remote workforce and could be expanded to include women and men in more lines of work, from executives to low-income workers ”. – Kweilin Ellingrud, Fortune
Women should not be penalized for having their careers hindered by the pandemic
“Organizations need to encourage women to be open about the ‘sabbatical year of the pandemic’ in their CVs and LinkedIn profiles. They can do this by publicly sharing their commitment to bring women back into the job market, making it clear that they will not discriminate against those who had to be absent during the pandemic. ”- Mita Mallick, Harvard Business Review
Men need to take an active role in promoting gender equality
“The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear what is needed to make more progress towards gender equality in the workplace. Spoiler: it’s men. … Changing the status quo requires men – whose actions at work and at home affect women around them every day – to do more than merely endorse the notion of gender equality. ”- Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg, MarketWatch
Democrats’ stimulus project will give a big boost to working women
“The question – for many – is: would the $ 1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in Biden, as it is known, help women get back to work? … The answer, according to several economists, advocates and experts, is overwhelmingly yes. The plan goes big on elements that have not traditionally been large parts of the stimulus plans: public health, with funding to increase the distribution and testing of the Covid-19 vaccine, and child care, without which experts say it would be difficult to reverse the situation. called shecession. ”- Alisha Haridasani Gupta, New York Times
Recovery efforts must remove barriers that prevented mothers who worked before the pandemic
“The pandemic may be highlighting the symptoms, but the disease has worsened because the United States has not signed a social contract that declares unquestionable support for working mothers.” – Sheela Subramanian, Fast Company
Any recovery plan that ignores racial equity will fail
“Smart policies – whether in the public or private sector – are those that consider the consequences intentional and unintended. After all, intense research shows that even policies explicitly designed to support women do not help all women equally – often leaving black women, other women of color and those with low incomes behind ”. – Sian Beilock, Washington Post
Recycling programs can help prepare women for new, more stable jobs
“Some jobs (think of street retail) may never come back after the pandemic. Therefore, a recovery would depend on workers being able to retrain for other industries, such as technology. Women, in particular, will need time and support to do this. ” – Elisa Martinuzzi, Bloomberg
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