The turn of the new year has come and gone, and unfortunately, this January does not bring the same sense of renewal as it has in past years. The global pandemic rages on as well as the momentous problems that come along with it. Two of which are the loss of millions of jobs in 2020 and the resulting negative effects on women.
This past year has brought the lowest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. It has also marked an astounding reversal in the progress towards closing the gender gap in America.
The start of 2020 was a historic time for employed women in the US: for a brief period, women held more jobs in the economy than men. This hard-earned progress, however, was quickly squandered as the coronavirus disrupted the day-to-day functioning of most businesses.
Although every American has felt the weight of this pandemic in some sense, women especially have been hit hard. Job losses have disproportionately affected women-dominated fields, such as hospitality, education and retail. In raw data from December 2020, women held 5.4 million fewer jobs than they did in February whereas men held 4.4 million less.
It is important to look at the intersectionality of this issue. Ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S. are disproportionately represented in what we now call essential work sectors. One example is prominently seen in the healthcare field, where black workers are both more likely to be present in the industry and more likely to work in hospitals than white employees. In these high-risk settings, minority workers are more at risk to be exposed to coronavirus.
This risk is coupled with the lack of flexibility in these fields, limiting the ability for employees to work from home or take paid sick leave. This forces working mothers to make difficult decisions when it comes to taking care of their children, especially in the age of limited daycare availability and online school. These challenges exist in addition to the persistent racial wealth gap in America, making it even more difficult for racial minorities to miss work and live without income.
The American gender gap can also be interpreted in avenues beyond employment. The coronavirus pandemic is responsible for heightening inequalities in food insecurity and physiological distress rates among BIPOC as well, an expected effect of job losses.
These gender issues become even more pressing when viewed from a global standpoint. COVID-19 has halted the gradual decline of poverty rates, resulting in a more concerning situation for women across the globe. It is predicted that more women will be pushed into extreme poverty than men in the near future, widening yet another piece of the gender gap.
As stated by Kawtar Ed-Dahmani, Managing Director of Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt at Barings Asset Management, “Any shock tends to magnify existing inequalities.” America, as well as the planet as a whole, was already battling problems concerning gender. Now we must buckle down and find policy solutions that incorporate the essential factor of gender inequality into future pandemic relief.
