By GREGORY N. HEIRES
Men are more likely than women to die from Covid-19.
But in many ways, women are being disproportionately hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which is exacerbating gender inequality.
“The resurgence of extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic has revealed women’s precarious economic security,” said Antra Bhatt, co-author of a United Nations report “From Insights to Action.”
“Women typically earn less and hold less secure jobs than men,” Bhatt said. “With plummeting economic activity, women are particularly vulnerable to layoffs and loss of livelihoods.”
The UN report estimates that the pandemic will push 47 million women and girls into poverty worldwide. This will bring the total number of women and girls living on $1.90 or less a day to 435 million in the global economy.
“For the first time since 1964—the advent of modern U.S. employment statistics for women—this economic downturn, which began in February, has seen women lose jobs at a higher rate than men,” Michael Madowitiz and Diana Boesch write in a report released in October by the Center for American Progress. “Women’s employment and labor force participation rates have both fallen to levels not seen since 1986.”
In the United States, about 865,000 women left the workforce in September as the coronavirus recession took its toll. That’s four times as many women as men—216,000—who dropped out of the economy that month. Overall, women lost more jobs than men (5.8 million compared to 5.0 million) from February to September.
“The numbers are astounding,” said Noreen Connell, an executive board member of the full-employment advocacy group National Jobs for All Network and former president of the National Organization for Women in New York.
“The coronavirus recession has shown that despite gains, our economy continues to be plagued by gender segregation and segmentation that assigns women to more precarious and lower-paid jobs than men,” Connell said. “Minority women and single mothers have been especially harmed.”
A Service Sector-Led Recession
This is the first recession led by job losses in the service sector, where women are disproportionately unemployed. For instance, the losses have been particularly devastating in education, tourism, retail, day care, tipped work in restaurants, and personal services.
The economic crisis caused by the pandemic has hit the child-care sector especially hard—and this has had a profound impact on women’s employment.
Many mothers have dropped out of the workforce to care for their children at home because of day-care closings, as well as to help their children in learning as schools adopt virtual education.
A third of working women 25 to 44 years old attributed their unemployment to child-care demands, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey. Only 12 percent of unemployed men cited child-care demands as the reason for their unemployment.
More than 70 percent of parents of children under the age of 5 report their child care provider is closed or operating with limited hours or space, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center and Morning Consultant.
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation study found that 75 percent of parents had a parent or guardian staying home with a child, either working remotely or not working, and 28 percent were relying on family and friends.
25 Years of Economic Gains at Risk
“The collapse of the child-care sector and drastic reductions in school supervision hours as a result of COVID-19 could drive millions of mothers out of the paid workforce,” a joint report by The Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress warned in October. “Inaction could cost billions, undermine family economic security and set gender equity back a generation.”
The Century Foundation and Center for American Progress report estimates that if conditions for families do not improve, lost wages could total $64.5 billion per year. A 5 percent reduction of mothers in the workforce could wipe out 25 years of economic gains by women, according to the joint report.
The Persistence of Gender-Based Inequality
As Connell notes, the pandemic-induced recession has pointed to the persistence of gender-based economic inequality. Besides the school and day-care closings, a number of other factors explain why women are especially vulnerable in the economic downturn.
Despite some progress in recent decades, women continue to earn less than men. They tend to have less savings than men and are more likely to be employed in the informal sector as, for example, domestic workers. And the pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of government assistance for workers facing economic hardship.
“Decades of government failure to lead on equitable social policy have forced the vast majority of Americans to go it alone during tough times, followed by only incremental, Band-Aid-style policy solutions,” The Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress report says. “This system, which leaves working parents scrambling to cobble together individual solutions, was always destined to fail. The pandemic-related school, camp, and child care closures have merely exposed the vulnerabilities the United States has created by not investing in and maintaining family-friendly workplace standards and a robust child care system—and it has shown why we cannot go back to the way things were.”
The report recommends that a future government comprehensive coronavirus relief package for working families include at least $50 billion for child care. Long-term policy solutions include flexible work hours, paid personal and family medical leave, and pay parity for part-time workers.
The National Jobs for All Network backs policy initiatives like those recommended by the Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress report.
In addition,the NJFAN believes the government should play a stronger role in promoting high paid and union jobs. The network is calling for a New Deal-inspired Federal Jobs Guarantee, which would give workers protection during economic downturns and promote infrastructure development, including funding for child-care centers. The NJFAN supports state legislation for jobs programs.
Blogger Gregory N. Heires is a former president of the Metro NY Labor Communications Council. He is a moderator with Labor Portside and editor of the Jobs for All Newsletter. A version of this article appears in the January 2021 edition of the newsletter.
