The current recession has begun to be labeled by some as a ‘Shecession,’ because job and income losses are impacting women more than men. From February to May, 11 million women lost their jobs in comparison to the 9 million men who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. These losses ultimately erase a decade of labor gains women have made in the workforce, wherein 2019 women made up 50.04 percent of the workforce. The reasoning for the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on men and women stems from occupational segregation, where men are more likely to hold a managerial position, and because women still take on the majority of child care responsibilities. The second point is particularly important because with schools moving online and childcare options disappearing, more women had to reduce their work hours to care for their children. The ability for women to recover from the recession relies heavily therefore on childcare recovery plans. In the meantime, as women are more likely to remain jobless, the gender pay gap is likely to grow and overall wage growth will stall. Other than childcare recovery plans, what other policies could help mitigate the disproportionate impact on women? Or, another question, how will families adapt to becoming a one-income family instead of two?
https://19thnews.org/2020/08/americas-first-female-recession/
The "Shecession" is definitely an interesting topic I have not come across during this pandemic. An astonishing statistic that "female unemployment reached double digits for the first time since 1948, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking women's joblessness." How long will it take to for women to recover employment opportunities? I have a feeling the answer to that question has high correlation to how long the pandemic is going to effect childcare and full-time, in-person schooling. The future is unpredictable even after children return to daycare/in-person schooling, but there is still uncertainty that jobs will even be there for women following the break. I think some families will have no choice but to transition towards relying on only one income for the foreseeable future. This will put a damper on the recovery of the economy from the pandemic, and even in general, because it impacts all families in this situation who have less extra money to spend overall.
ReplyDelete"Shecession" is also a new term and topic for me. I think it will be interesting to see how the unemployment of females correlates to the new unemployment number that were published Friday. I also think it will be interesting to see how unemployment will be affected now that everyone is going back to school. Some of those stay at home moms might now be able to go back to work because their kids have gone back to school. Also will will women begin to take on roles that can allow them to be at home now because of the pandemic? I think it will be interesting to see how the pandemic will affect women in particular because I have not put a lot of thought into it before.
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