Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted women's lives. Many already juggled two full-time jobs, that of employee and that of primary homemaker and caregiver; the pandemic exacerbated these challenges. Unprecedented numbers left paid employment altogether, some by choice, some by necessity, and others by jobs that disappeared. Disruptions may have lasting consequences for gender equality in the workplace. The pandemic exacerbated existing barriers in the workplace, augmented by the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity that contributes to challenges women of color and immigrant and migrant women face. The chapter covers how the pandemic has exacerbated barriers and challenges, how it affected women's labor force participation and work and home lives, and the economic and social consequences. The chapter also covers new challenges and opportunities and current and emerging research and policies. The chapter concludes with consideration of implications for supports and policy and recommendations for further research.
TopBackground
The SARSs Corona Virus-2 (COVID-19) pandemic persists despite growing vaccination rates, leading to uncertainty about where the pandemic is heading (Mallapaty, 2021). The United States has had more than 35 million diagnosed cases and more than 614 thousand deaths attributed to COVID-19 (New York Times Interactive, 2021). Despite breakthrough infections occurring among the vaccinated, the World Health Organization (2021) has called for a moratorium on booster shots until October 2021 to address a global disparity in vaccinations. The Delta variant may impede the once-hoped resumption of a return to a “new normal” school and work year. Women are bearing a disproportionate burden of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, at work and at home.
Women, particularly women of color and mothers of young and school-age children, have had their lives disrupted. Prior to the pandemic, many women already juggled two full-time jobs, that of employee and that of primary homemaker and caregiver (Hochschild, 1989; Hochschild & Machung, 2012; McKinsey & Company, 2020). The pandemic exacerbated the challenges associated with these demands and inequities, particularly for single mothers and women of color, many of whom did not have the option of working from home and caring for their children.
The pandemic disrupted the supports on which working mothers depended – childcare and school (McKinsey & Company, 2020). Daycare and school closures meant many children could no longer attend daycare or school. First responders, health care personnel, and other essential workers had to scramble to find safe alternatives for their children’s care while they went to the physical workplace. Black and Latino workers, despite suffering from major upticks in unemployment, have been disproportionately overrepresented among workers who cannot work from home (Ballesteros, 2020).
Table 1.
Top 10 Occupations Employing the Largest Number of U.S Women in 2019 (N=79,457,808)
Note: Women’s Bureau Data, U.S Department of Labor, 2019b
Key Terms in this Chapter
Buren of Care: The physical, emotional, and economic challenges family caregivers experience.
Gender Inequality: A legal, cultural, or social situation where gender determines disparate opportunities and rights for women and men, characterized by unequal access to or benefit of rights and assumptions of stereotypical culturally and socially defined roles.
Pandemic Stress: The chronic emotional and physical toll that people experience from the increased burden of care, uncertainty, anxiety, and sleep disturbances, and other reactions to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Gender Equality: The equal enjoyment by women and men of socially valued goods, opportunities, resources, and rewards.
On-Ramp Program: A training program, usually short-term, to help adults develop job skills for existing jobs with a need for skilled workers.
Intersectionality: A framework for considering women’s overlapping identities, roles, and experiences to understand the barriers, challenges, obstacles, and opportunities they face.
Gender Equity: The fair and equitable treatment of women and men regarding their rights, responsibilities, benefits, and opportunities, considering their respective needs.
Work-Family Conflict: The tension that arises between incompatible demands between family and work responsibilities and obligations, which may result in competing obligations and diminished participation in one sphere to meet the demands in the other sphere.
Work-Family Balance: The active engagement of a family member in their work and family lives, integrating and meeting their responsibilities in both spheres.
Returnship: A structured program that helps adults return to the workplace after some time away.
Gender Bias: The tendency, implicit and often unconscious, toward preferring men over women in the workplace in terms of expectations, opportunities, benefits, and rewards.
Remote Work: The work performed away from a traditional office or organizational or institutional setting, often performed at home.
Second Shift: The unpaid housework and childcare that women who work outside the home do each day when they return from their paid employment.
Care Economy: The informal and formal work provided in childcare; early childhood education; and health, disability, long-term, and elder care.
Breakthrough Infections: Describes cases where some fully vaccinated individuals have contracted and tested positive for the coronavirus post 14 days after receiving the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Telecommuting: Commonly referred to as teleworking, implies that employees occasionally work on-site in addition to working remotely.
Only: A person who is the only one of their gender, race, immigration or disability status, or ethnicity in an organization, department, or job category.
Disparate Impact: A situation that occurs when systems, practices, policies, or institutions affect different groups disproportionally.
Gender Stereotype: A preconceived notion about women’s versus men’s attributes, characteristics, and roles and responsibilities.
Digital Divide: A social and economic inequality driven by unequal access, the difference in usage, or impact of information and communication technologies. There is a digital divide between urban and rural areas in some nations based on unequal access to, the difference in usage, or the impact of information and communication technologies.
Remote Working: An operational mode that allows professionals to work away from a traditional office environment, incorporating the concept that there is no need for a specific place to execute and complete work-related tasks successfully.