IWD 2021: will the economic impacts of Covid-19 set gender equality back decades?

8th March 2021

International Women’s Day (IWD) is not just about celebrating women’s achievements; it is also a call to action to raise awareness about women’s equality and to accelerate gender parity. This year’s theme is ‘Choose to Challenge’, asking us to challenge the status quo; through challenge comes change.

Unlike any other modern recessions, the downturn triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has created greater employment losses for women than men leading to what some have started calling a ‘shecession’.

The UN Deputy Secretary-General Armina Mohammed has warned that without action now, gender equality is likely to be set back decades. 

Reflecting this, a new UK parliamentary report, titled ‘Unequal impact? Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact’, was published on 9th Feb 2021. The Women’s and Equalities Committee, made up of MPs from all political parties, are raising a number of sub-inquiries to investigate ‘how the economic impact of coronavirus has impacted men and women differently; for example, because of existing economic inequalities between men and women or the over-representation of women in certain types of work – but also because of the actions the Government has taken.’

Caroline Nokes, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, speaking on Radio 4 Women’s Hour as part of the launch, pointed out that ‘the design of the benefits support schemes overlook women, investment plans for the future are skewed towards male-dominated sectors’ and that ‘full equality impact assessments are needed to address the situation’. 

Gender Inequality

We need to be mindful of these inequalities when celebrating International Women’s Day, otherwise it is at risk of being a token statement with no real substance for the majority of women. Should IWD be entirely focused on individual women’s successes? For every woman who succeeds, how many are struggling to achieve? Especially in a post-Covid world.

The list of inequalities mentioned in the ‘Unequal impact? Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact’ report goes on. Women are less likely to be eligible for statutory sick pay as they’re on short-term contracts or shorter hours. Pregnant women have often been incorrectly put on statutory sick pay rather than furlough. More women have been furloughed than men as many work in sectors such as retail and hospitality – locked down first and likely to reopen last. As retail organisations close and move online, many shop front retail roles are going to men in distribution and delivery jobs instead.

And it’s not just women who face Covid-19 inequalities. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) in its report ‘Coronavirus and the social impacts on disabled people in Great Britain’ that disabled workers have also been negatively impacted. The Leonard Cheshire survey, ‘Employment and Covid-19' of 1,170 disabled workers and 500 employers found that 57% of disabled 18-24 year olds felt that the pandemic had affected their ability to work. The majority also believed that it had hit their future earnings potential. According to the 'Unequal Impact? Coronavirus and BAME people', people from BAME communities are also being hit by pre-existing inequalities which have made the impact of the pandemic more severe.

Working at home? Or parenting at work?

In addition, although both men and women have been significantly impacted during Covid-19, the Gov.uk 'Gender Spotlight' research shows hat women are carrying the greater share of caring responsibilities, juggling home-schooling and work. This has translated into a near-impossible situation to sustain, with many women experiencing higher rates of anxiety and stress (Gender Spotlight), resulting in some reducing their working hours or even stepping away from their jobs in order to manage childcare. Right now, many women are not working from home, they are parenting at work. Whilst schools can reopen in March, we can anticipate continuing challenges as Covid-19 cases pop up and year groups have to be closed. And women will, in the main, be picking up the flack again.

Gender pay gap

On 23rd February 2021, it was announced by government that the Gov.uk gender pay gap reporting will go ahead in October 2021. The enforcement, brought in in 2017, requires companies with over 250 employees to share their gender pay gap data on their website. In March 2020, gender pay gap reporting was suspended for a year due to coronavirus and has now been delayed for a further 6 months. However, it’s good news that it’s going ahead this year.

Last figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the gender pay gap for all employees was 15.5% in April 2020. This means in real terms that on average a woman is paid approximately 84p for every £1 men were paid for doing the same job. The progress of reducing the gender pay gap is woefully slow and arguably there should be wider gender pay gap reporting for smaller organisations, too. The need is clear for more transparency around gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps enabling discussion, challenge and change.

Unemployment hits the under 25s

Unemployment rates are now at their highest level in almost 5 years. The under 25s are those worst affected by job losses according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported in the ONS Labour market overview that the unemployment rate was 5.1%, 1.3 percentage points higher than the year earlier. The unemployment rate for men was 5.4% compared with 4.8% for women. 

As we head down the ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown, there will be an influx of female job seekers. It is essential for women to be able to access meaningful training and support and encouraged into the wide range of diverse roles available on the job market, such as in green tech and construction, and not pushed into stereotypical roles for women. Skills gaps tend to exist in industries such as construction, engineering, digital and programming. The Open University Business Barometer found that skills gaps still remain meaning employers are forced to recruit temporary staff at a higher cost to plug those gaps preventing them from cutting costs.

Work Training Opportunities for Women

As many women have been pigeonholed into working in certain sectors, it will be vital to access work training opportunities, such as Kickstart and Apprenticeships. 

Kickstart

The government’s £2 billion Kickstart scheme has been designed to help create hundreds of meaningful jobs for young people aged 16-24, who are currently claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment. This scheme has the potential to help young people out of unemployment and boost their career, with 6-month long employment roles for young people aged 16-24 for a minimum of 25 hours per week. 

Apprenticeships

There have been a lot of changes to apprenticeships in recent years. It’s not just about young people wanting to get into manual trades. There are hundreds of different job roles to choose from, at all ages and all levels. On-the-job training and studying for a formal qualification are also benefits of apprenticeships which can be used to employ a new person or upskill existing staff. It’s a great way to attract new talent, address skills shortages/gaps and to nurture and develop existing staff.

Schemes like these have the power to help employers to adapt to the labour challenges we’re facing. Apprenticeships, work-based learning and Kickstart will be vital to help with economic recovery in 2021. 

Moving forward

Can we say the conditions of lockdown have shone a light on society as it is? The policies and schemes developed to offer support during Covid-19 are not deliberately designed to be sexist. But they have effectively exposed women’s workplace inequalities in all their ugliness. The gendered economic impact of Covid-19 risks taking its toll on women’s inequality for years to come. 

We have a once in a generation opportunity to bring women and underrepresented groups into the workforce in a meaningful way. Training and workplace learning will play a big part in this. Plus, harnessing working flexibility, drawing on the lessons learnt from our enforced homeworking experience.

For this year's International Women’s Day on 8th March 2021, re-focused in the context of Covid-19 impacts, we should indeed #ChooseToChallenge. In the spirit of the day’s purpose, we especially need to ‘raise awareness about women's equality’ and seek to push ‘accelerated gender parity’ – over simply celebrating women’s considerable achievements. 

Transparency on gender pay gaps will unveil the inequality and challenge companies to make the changes required to create a more equitable working culture and society. And so, as businesses we need to talk frankly about these issues and galvanise action for re-training and more flexible working practices for women. Only through challenge comes change.

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