COVID-19 and the impact on women's jobs

Until April this year, women in the US had not experienced double-digit unemployment. They had reached a milestone they had only reached once before: There were more of them at work than men.

We were making real progress, not just in the US. Yes, women were generally paid less, and with fewer of them in employment than men. But in developed countries, the industries women are over-represented in, had been the fastest-growing parts of the economy for years. And in developing countries, women were entering work at a steady pace, albeit slower than men.

Then came Covid-19.

A troubling new report by McKinsey estimates that, although women make up only 39% of all employed workers, they now account for 54% of overall layoffs owing to the pandemic. Based on data and trends from unemployment surveys from the US to India, where gender-disaggregated data are available, McKinsey estimates that female job loss rates due to COVID-19 are about 1.8 times higher than male job loss rates globally, at 5.7 per cent versus 3.1 per cent respectively. If this disproportionate impact on women goes unaddressed, it "would not just set back the cause of gender equality, but also hold back the global economy".

For a moment, let’s put aside considerations about fairness and equality, and ask ourselves why it is important that women work for the economy? Simply put: it's a significant part of the story about how economies develop and progress is made.

Let's say two countries' workers are equally productive. If one of these countries has a larger population at work, it will produce more per capita than the other. Therefore, the country with a more significant proportion of women working will have the biggest economy. That means a virtuous circle of larger markets, more consumers for businesses to sell to and more tax revenue, which benefit everyone.

But why are women more at risk than men of losing their jobs now? During the great recession, it was men who lost jobs at a higher rate than women. According to McKinsey, about a quarter of global job losses can be explained by the sectors women are concentrated in: leisure, hospitality, retail and education were disproportionately affected.

But that still fails to explain a big part of the higher rate of job loss among women. What factors drive the other three-quarters? Most significant is the burden of unpaid care that falls unequally on women and has substantially grown during the pandemic.

Many of us (including men) have experienced the escalating demand to provide care because of forced lockdowns. According to a report from Boston Consulting Group, parents in the US have nearly doubled the time they were spending on education and household tasks before the coronavirus outbreak, from 30 hours per week to 59. But with mothers spending 15 hours more on average than fathers.

Let's be clear. Women have always been on the front lines here; they do an average of 75% of the world's total unpaid-care work, including childcare, caring for the elderly, cooking and cleaning. Even data from one of the more progressive regions in the world, the EU, confirms this picture. Before Covid-19, women spent 13 hours more than men every week on unpaid care and housework. That is well over 40 hours of work a month more than men.

McKinsey's Power of Parity research backs up the care work vs labor participation equation. It found that the share of women in unpaid care work has a high and negative correlation with female labor-force participation rates. It also had a moderately negative relationship with women's chances of participating in professional and technical jobs or of assuming leadership positions.

There is much talk now of the need for a "new deal" – and a green one at that – in order to fight the economic impact of COVID-19. I wholeheartedly agree and have even said so myself. But the devil will be in the details. Few know that FDR's original New Deal was indirectly unfair to women and minorities. Much of the legislation disproportionately benefited men while excluding or offering minimal assistance to everyone else.

The Washington Post points out that retirement benefits in the Social Security Act of 1935 only covered half of workers, and 60% of those it excluded were women. The Old Age Insurance program shut out agricultural and domestic laborers. This meant that nearly two-thirds of all black people in the labor force and probably about 85 per cent of black women were denied coverage.

Yet McKinsey points out that the right government policies are crucial not only to address workplace equality, but also to boost recovery. Doing nothing will prove costly. Taking action now to advance gender equality could add $13 trillion to global GDP by 2030, which would otherwise be lost.

What forms could this support take?: Employer - or state-funded childcare and tax policies to encourage both spouses to work. Government and businesses should support family-friendly initiatives, including flexible and part-time programs. The aim should be to support workers experiencing an increased childcare burden during the pandemic and beyond.

In developing countries with little social infrastructure, creating a professionalized childcare industry with public funding would make a big difference. This could not just enable many women to work but also create jobs for many others.

And one of the most important recommendations is also one of the hardest: changing culture. That is to say, changing social norms about childcare.

Norms and culture are a potent force in our societies. Because of the culture during the Great Depression, journalist Norman Cousins felt free to offer the following solution to rising male unemployment: "Fire the women, who shouldn't be working anyway, and hire the men. Presto! No unemployment. No relief rolls. No depression." 

In that crisis, the jobs in which men were concentrated, such as heavy industry, railroads and mining, bore the brunt of losses while women's employment stayed relatively stable. According to the prevailing norms then, many, including many women, agreed with Cousins that the highest priority was to restore men to their roles as their families' economic providers.

Even in developed countries today, persistent norms and culture prevent women from reaching their full potential. As we plan our way out of this crisis, let’s remember that promoting women's economic wellbeing is good for everyone.