COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the world. The interventions taken to protect society from the dangers of this health crisis have forced us to reflect on life before COVID-19, and rethink all that we take for granted in our lives and work.  

The impact of the pandemic has been felt disproportionately by women, leading some economists to call the consequent economic downturn a “she-cession” or “pink-collar recession.” This article takes a closer look at the challenges facing women in the workforce, and the need to reconsider our approach as a society to the problem of gender disparity.

Trends in female employment
The average female participation rate (61%) and the ratio of female to male labour participation rate (88:100) in Canada is the highest among the G7 countries. Two months into the pandemic, however, the participation of women in the labour force was knocked down by almost six percent points, from 61.3 percent in February 2020 to 55.8 percent in April 2020—the lowest level since the mid-1980s.

Nearly 1.5 million women lost their jobs in those first two months, accounting for 51 percent of job losses in the months of March and April, even though women constitute 47 percent of the employed workforce in Canada on average. At the peak of the 2008-2009 Great Recession, the unemployment rate for men was more than 2.5 percentage points higher than that of women. Between March and June of 2020, for the first time in over 20 years, the female unemployment rate surpassed that of men. What was different this time around?

Because we care . . .
In general, women are over-represented in high-risk service and care industries, making their jobs, livelihoods, and health more susceptible to the effects of the pandemic. Two-thirds of all essential workers in Canada are women, and over half of Canadian female workers are employed in occupations involving the “5 Cs”—caring, clerical, catering, cashiering, and cleaning—which are often low-paid, precarious jobs that are also considered essential.  Women are also more concentrated in industries that have been subjected to the most stringent levels of health restriction, such as healthcare and social assistance, educational services, accommodation and food services, and retail trade—all of which were hit hard by the pandemic, particularly during the initial months of the lockdown.

Between February 2020 and January 2021, more than 380,000 workers in the accommodation and food services industry in Canada lost their jobs: the highest losses among all industries. Businesses in the professional, scientific and technical services industry, on the other hand, hired nearly 75,000 workers during the same period. These new jobs, however, are primarily held by men.    

Female entrepreneurs bore the brunt of the losses too, with many independent business owners lacking the financial and technological expertise to adapt. Nationwide, 61 percent of companies with women founders reported losing contracts, compared to 34 percent of all small businesses. Many found themselves ineligible for government supports because they did not have staff on payroll. Those with staff laid off a disproportionately higher percentage of their workers than did businesses owned by men.

The expectation
Traditional gender norms call upon women to shoulder the lion’s share of caregiving responsibilities at home. Even as their economic roles have expanded, women have retained the ultimate responsibility for the co-ordination of children’s lives, the smooth functioning of the household, the maintenance of the family’s emotional well-being, the provision of support for loved ones, and “kin keeping.” In 2015, women in Canada spent an average of 3.9 hours per day on unpaid work—1.5 hours more than men. This state of affairs has repercussions beyond the realm of work.

Women struggle to find work-life balance at the best of times; the pandemic has since made finding that balance almost impossible. Put in the position of having to choose between keeping a high-risk, yet underpaid job and maintaining family care responsibilities, it is no surprise that a third of Canadian women surveyed by Pollara Strategic Insights have considered quitting their jobs. Sylvia Apostolidis, president of the Jasmar Group, a behavioural change consultancy that helps organizations build diverse and inclusive workplaces, says, “Because there is a wage gap and women’s salaries are, on average, less than men’s, families are making the difficult choice of who drops out of the labour force, at least for now.”

Between February and December 2020, nearly 45,000 women fell out of the labour force, while 30,000 more men joined it. The trend is particularly noticeable for two age cohorts—women aged 20 to 24 and 35 to 39. While many young women are choosing to return to school or re-skill, women in the latter age cohort seem to be focusing on child-care responsibilities at home. But, by staying at home, these women risk skill erosion and losing access to networks, which will have a severe impact on their growth opportunities should they decide to return to work. Many women who have “chosen” to quit the workforce have done so reluctantly.

Who should we fix?
The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the social and cultural gender norms traditionally defined by our society—making it clear that while we are all in the same storm, we are not in the same boat. Apostolidis says, “It is time to look for new solutions and challenge the current social norms and approaches that have, frankly, failed us for decades. We need to examine gender equality through a systemic lens—let’s stop trying to fix women and, instead, fix the system.”

Investing in a professionalized childcare industry is one way to do just that. Historically, Canada has underinvested in childcare. The OECD benchmark is 1 percent of GDP spending on childcare, and at 0.3 per cent, Canada is nowhere close. In a November 2020 report from the Centre for Future Work, “The Role of Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) in Rebuilding Canada’s Economy after COVID-19,” economist Jim Stanford estimated that a universal national ELCC program would create over 200,000 direct jobs in childcare centres, along with 100,000 more jobs in industries that support and supply the ELCC sector, and create employment opportunities for approximately 725,000 women in prime parenting years. It could also add more than C$100 billion to Canada’s GDP over a 10-year period.

There is also a need to change attitudinal biases. Apostolidis contextualizes it clearly: “There is so much awareness training happening, but awareness does not lead to behaviour change, which is ultimately what we need.” Change begins at home, and what is needed is a better recognition of unpaid work and an equal sharing of domestic responsibilities. Two-thirds of women who drop out of the workforce cite a lack of support from their husbands. While husbands often offer verbal and emotional support to their wives, this does not necessarily translate into material support (i.e., supervising Zoom school or doing household chores unprompted). Men do not always realize how little they are helping; time-use studies find that men overestimate how much housework they do.

Redefining organizational leadership
The tone set at the top of an organization is equally important. Leaders need to be role models who mentor and sponsor female talent. “Women have important skills to lead teams, like humility, empathy, integrity. These are transformational leadership skills, yet are often overlooked in favour of over-confidence, for example, which men tend to have more than women, yet has no correlation to competence,” says Apostolidis. 

By underlining the strategic importance of technology as a critical business component and by accelerating the pace of innovation, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an extraordinary catalyst for change. How many women, though, are a part of this change? According to a research study conducted by Catalyst, women make up less than 30 percent of those employed in scientific research and development globally. Women in Canada hold only a third of STEM bachelor’s degrees. The few women who begin careers in STEM face male-dominated workplaces with high rates of discrimination.  

That we need to push for greater gender equality is a given. The fallout from COVID-19 means we need to accelerate the pace. This recession is not a regular financial crisis—it is a health crisis, and despite successful vaccine trials and rollouts, uncertainty about the future still looms large. We may see female employment and participation rates return to pre-pandemic levels, but until we deal with the structural issues at hand, crises like this will continue to reverse gains by women. As Canadian economist Armine Yalnizyan rightly said about the pandemic, “There is no recovery without a she-covery.”