Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on working women

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a widespread impact on lives around the world. In this article, we highlight the impact on working women with a focus on employment, work-life integration, and well-being.

Before COVID-19, women’s sense of financial security was already somewhat cautious. Our earlier article on Women and Money, highlighted a Nielsen consumer survey conducted in 2019 showing that due to the rising cost of living, 46% of women globally believe that they are financially worse off or about the same compared with five years ago. In Europe, North America, and Latin America, that percentage was even higher. Since then, no one could have imagined such a ravaging pandemic sweeping through the globe.

Industries employing women are suffering

Almost 305 million jobs could be lost worldwide due to COVID-19 predicts the International Labour Organization (ILO). While some jobs could be temporarily adjusted to work-at-home, millions of people in industries with in-person contact have lost work, had hours cut, or were furloughed.

Industries that are major employers to women have felt the magnitude of the pandemic. Within OECD countries, women make up a large portion of employment in these affected industries, including:

62% Retail

60% Accommodation services

54% Tourism

53% Food and beverage services

47% Air transportation

Along the supply chain, related industries with large numbers of female employees such as clothing manufacturers, also face the ripple effect of lower consumer demand. Additionally, small-to-medium businesses owned by women are weathering steep declines in revenue.

As 2020 marked the start of a new global recession, how is it different this time for women? An interesting article by The Centre for Economic Policy Research in Europe points out that in past recessions, men faced greater risk of unemployment than women due in part of the gender composition of different sectors of the economy. More men (46%) were employed than women (24%) in highly cyclical industries such as construction, manufacturing, trade, transportation, and utilities. These industries are usually among the first to be hit and set an early sign of a recession. This time, different sectors have been the first impacted as measures were taken to enforce closures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In addition, a greater share of men (52%) than women (39%) work in telecommutable and/or critical occupations, suggesting that women are more exposed to unemployment risk during this recession compared with previous ones. 

Rising job losses

What do the unemployment numbers reveal? Women are losing jobs at a faster rate than men in some industries and countries.

In the United States, employment indicators show that jobs held by women accounted for around 59% of the payroll decline in March 2020. Since February 2020, Leisure and Hospitality industry cut 4.4 million jobs held by women compared with 3.7 million jobs lost by men. The second largest sector impacted has been the Educational and Health Services industry where women lost 2.2 million jobs compared with 443,000 lost by men. Women lost 1.3 million jobs in the Retail sector compared with 836,000 lost by men, making this the third impacted sector. See the figure below for more information.

In the United Kingdom, the top three industries employing women are Healthcare and Social work, Retail and Education. Like other countries, a similar trend is unfolding. There are 2.8 million people unemployed bringing the UK unemployment rate between February to April 2020 to 3.9%. Observers are bracing for what will happen next once the state wage support schemes end in October.

A University of Cambridge study found that the percentage of tasks workers can do from home and individual work arrangements is highly predictive of job loss. While companies have in some instances smoothed the impact for permanent and salaried employees, the study found that women in the U.S. and U.K. without a college degree are significantly more likely have lost their jobs and many worry that they will lose their jobs over the next months. This sentiment was much lower in Germany where the number of workers made unemployed have been moderated in part due to the government’s scheme to subsidize wages of struggling employers and employees, helping around 10 million people. Germany’s unemployment rate in April rose to 5.8% with 373,000 more unemployed and this increased further in May to 6.3%.

In Canada, 5.5 million workers were affected by the pandemic losing their jobs between February to April 2020. In terms of women, 18% of working mothers with children under 18 years old had hours reduced – working less than half of their usual hours – compared with 14% of male counterparts.

In Australia, unemployment peaked at 7.1% in May 2020, the highest rate in nearly two decades since 2001. Over the last quarter, 835,000 people have lost their jobs and data shows that women are losing jobs at a faster rate than men. In April, a joint Melbourne University Policy Lab and La Trobe University study found that 15.8% women had experienced job loss compared with 11% of men.

In many countries, healthcare and social work is the top industry employing women. According to OECD statistics, women make up almost 70% of the frontline healthcare workforce globally. We extend our sincere gratitude to all the women and men healthcare workers for their tireless service, and realize their dedication puts them at higher risk of exposure in doing their jobs.

Work and life integrated even more

One might say that with stay-at-home restrictions, work and life have never been more integrated - almost blended as a continuously long day for many working parents.

Women have been carrying a higher load of household responsibilities for a long time. Women perform 75% of household chores and activities worldwide according to OECD statistics. With the shift to remote schooling and no childcare assistance due to social distancing, women working from home have especially felt the burden of having to do even more.

For single working mothers the pressure is magnified. In the U.S., 19 million children live with single parents, and 70% of single parents are single mothers according to the US Census Bureau. The American Time Use Survey showed that only 20% of single parents reported to be able to work remotely compared to 40% of married people with children. 

Prior to the pandemic, in 44% of U.S. dual-earning families with children under the age of 18 years old and where both parents work full time, mothers already perform about 60% of childcare. Hopefully during the stay-at-home period, other family members living in the same household may have given a helping hand to share in the household responsibilities.

Wellness a key issue for working women

The impact on wellness can be viewed as a two-sided story.

On the negative side, anxiety has been amplified with confinement to stay-at-home, social distancing from friends and extended family, and watching the severity of the pandemic unfold. For working women, their stress about job loss, financial security, health and care of loved ones, is taking a toll on their mental and physical well-being. Speaking with some working women, I have heard many “writing off 2020” as a year where everything stopped. Many are demotivated and deferring their own goals, taking a survival mode to focus day-by-day on family and staying productive at work.

The positive side of the story is that some working women are taking this time for their health and wellness. When the support is around them, some are prioritizing time for exercise and wellness activities to help manage the increased stress. In addition, a few are taking time to do online learning courses to enhance their knowledge and skills. Last, but not least, many are relishing and finding happiness in the silver-lining of spending more time with their family.

In summary, COVID-19 has had a massive impact on our lives. Job losses are expected to have a prolonged and negative effect especially on women’s careers, their sense of financial security, and potentially likely it may extend the time it takes to close the gender wage gap. The pandemic has spotlighted the additional household responsibilities that women have and challenged working women in particular, to manage even more. With everyone under one roof and social distancing, any spare time that working women had for their own wellness and goals has largely been reduced or diminished.

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Photo: By Cryptographer | Shutterstock.

Sources: OECD. Women at the core of the fight against covid-19 crisis. May 2020. The Centre for Economic Policy Research. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on gender equality. 19 April 2020. International Labour Organization. COVID-19 and the world of work: Impact and policy responses. 18 March 2020. University of Cambridge. Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys. 23 April 2020. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. March 2020. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Dramatic Decline in Employment Hits Women Even More Severely than Men. 4 May 2020. Source: Statistics Canada. Labour Force Survey, May 2020. BBC News. Coronavirus: Job cuts warning as 600,000 roles go in lockdown. 16 June 2020. Sydney Morning Herald. 'This is laying the groundwork for some pretty serious poverty for women'. 24 May 2020. Nine News channel. Employment fell by more than 220,000 people in May. 18 June 2020. World Economic Forum. How coronavirus has hit employment in G7 economies. 13 May 2020. International Labour Organization. ILO: As job losses escalate, nearly half of global workforce at risk of losing livelihoods. 29 April 2020. UN Women. The second edition of the Global Report on Women in Tourism highlights how tourism can advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. 14 November 2019.