No matter who we are or where we come from, we have all felt the wrath of 2020. Last year came in with a bang. Just three months into the year, we were inundated with fear-inducing information about a new disease that was sweeping the globe. Shortly after, we were all placed on a world-wide lockdown. Twelve months later, we still have more questions than answers and many of us are still feeling the turmoil caused by the pandemic.
As time continues to pass, more data is being collected in an attempt to better understand the dynamics that play into this global pandemic. By taking a deeper look at the numbers, facts, and figures, we are able to detect where the gaps lie. Unfortunately for us women, the gaps are blaring and obvious because we are living them.
The Impact
Women are often overlooked in regards to larger-scale issues. The lockdown of 2020 is no different. Before the quarantine, women were notoriously doing more for less. After the quarantine, women are being overwhelmed with responsibilities at a much higher rate than men.
Women are impacted by the epidemic of 2020 in a multitude of ways. To better understand why we must first know how women are impacted at a higher rate than men.
Professionally
Women have broken all molds that were previously held specifying what they can and cannot do. There is not a job on the planet that a female hasn’t done; however, women naturally tend to gravitate towards certain jobs over others. This has been the justification for the discrepancies in higher unemployment rates in the past several months. Women make up the bulk of the workers in all hospitality, medical, educational, and social service professions. Coincidently, these are also the jobs classified as “low-paying”.
Pre-Covid, a woman made 81 cents to a man’s dollar. No matter her educational achievements, a woman is still subjected to less pay than a man. Unfortunately, this pay only decreases once her race is factored in.
80% of the 865,000 workers that left the workforce in September were female, making them four times as likely as men to leave their jobs. In 2019, there were 10 million women with young children in the workforce. Unlike men, women are being forced to choose between their work and their children.
Post-Covid, women are leaving the workforce at a rate, unlike any other time. Women from all walks of life are affected the same right now. Executives to waitresses are having to leave their jobs because of a lack of childcare. Women, especially women of color, are more likely to be laid off or furloughed as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Women were already making less than men on average before the lockdown, but afterward, women are taking home even less due to unemployment. Those who still have qualifying “essential” jobs are paid less than their male colleagues. 70% of all healthcare professionals are women. Research shows that female doctors are more likely to work harder and longer hours than male doctors, while being paid less.
White male physicians are paid the most, with black males taking second place. White and Black female physicians are paid the same relative to one another, but they are still paid less than either of their white or black male counterparts.
Personally
Women have always been slighted when it comes to compensation for their contributions, but 2020 highlighted this imbalance for everyone to see. Stemming from the archaic belief that women are property, female labor has long-been denounced and denied. Women, who were once forbidden from working outside of the home, are now being forced to work both inside and outside the home, with no pay incentives.
During the Covid-19 epidemic, mothers are three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for the majority of the housework and childcare. Women are also naturally twice as stressed out about their job performance suffering as a direct result of having no childcare and taking on more than men.
The emotional strain women feel is greater than that of men amidst this pandemic due to the imbalance of societal resources. The U.S. is the only one of the 22 high-income nations that do not have a permanent, national guarantee of paid leave for women. Likewise, when schools were forced shut, there was no plan to combat the increased burden of stress either. This is because women and their unique needs are not even an after-thought for the men in charge.
It’s striking to see just how many of those in charge of making key decisions, in response to the pandemic, are men. It’s no surprise that women’s opinions do not carry the same amount of weight as men’s, simply because men make up the majority of all major decision-making bodies. Women consist of only 10% of Heads of State or Government, and this discrepancy is felt most by those affected the greatest: women.
Who is advocating for the women, who are quite literally the glue that bind us all together, most especially during a pandemic? Men would never feel comfortable with an all-female decision making-body governing their every whim; why are women made to?
The few women that are allowed to participate on leadership teams are predominately white, which only adds to the discrepancies. Compared to the 13% of White respondents, 37% of African-American respondents and 39% of Hispanic respondents claim to have to skip paying bills due to the set-back.
The most appalling proof of the fact that women are impacted the greatest by Covid-19 is the dramatic increase in the already frightening rates of gender-based violence. The UK has reported femicide rates higher than they have been in the past 11 years, double the average for a 21-day period. Mexico has reported an 8% increase in femicides, with nearly 1,000 women murdered in the first three months of the year. Domestic violence rates tripled from February 2019 to February 2020. Within weeks of the stay-at-home orders being issued, Portland police saw a 22% spike in arrests due to domestic violence alone.
Financially
Until you have been humbled by experiencing poverty first-hand, you truly cannot empathize with someone who has. For women, obtaining any amount of wealth has always been more difficult than it has been for men. Unfortunately, the level of lack felt by women was compiled and exacerbated as a direct result of this pandemic.
A simple look into the not-so-distance past reveals the long-standing trend of treating women as property, which also meant that they had no rights as functional, contributing adults. Many laws have been enacted to help overcome these barriers, but many obstacles for women still exist.
One of the best examples of the blatant oppression of women is the gender pay gap. Fifty-seven years after The Equal Pay Act, white women still only earn $0.81 to a man’s dollar. Couple that with other obvious gender-biased laws, such as “pink-tax”, and it becomes easy to see that women are still being outwardly oppressed.
Women have a higher cost-of-living than men, yet we earn less for doing more.
Almost a full year after the initial government lockdown, women and their needs are still not given proper consideration. The biggest financial impact has been felt by women. Not only do some women have to choose between their children and career, but they are also taxed with finding a way to still make ends meet with no job. Those who qualify for unemployment only take home a fraction of their already slighted pay.
Melinda Gates donated $1 Billion to Women’s Initiatives in 2019, the very same year the coronavirus pandemic planning efforts took place, also funded by her and her husband. In 2020, she states on the record that the economic impact the pandemic caused was unforeseen. Her statements directly reflect her privilege as a wealthy, white woman.
This further reiterates the need for not just women at the table, but more specifically, women of color. A further look at the data and statistics show that Black and Indigenous women are impacted the greatest by the pandemic. Unfortunately, they make up the largest percentage of single-parent and impoverished households too.
Single mothers are by far the greatest population of people impacted by the financial upset caused by the lockdowns. The government has all gone virtual, making the already tedious task of applying for financial benefits even more grueling and time-consuming.
Women’s resources are even more limited than before Covid-19, but now women are literally in danger with absolutely nowhere to turn. During the civil unrest, entire police precincts were out of commission. Not surprisingly, these police forces were mostly found in areas with the highest concentration of people of color.
The Solution
The obvious solution is to incorporate more women into leadership roles. Women makeup over half of the population, yet represent only a fraction of all positions of power and influence.
The evidence is clear; women are good for business. Women are better leaders, scoring at a statistically significantly higher level than men in the vast majority of leadership capabilities measured by Harvard Business Review. Unfortunately, the rate of female leaders has remained steady domestically at only 2-4% and has even started to decline globally.
A report released by Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkley showed that companies with more women on their boards perform better on environmental, societal, and governance issues. Women just make sense. Sadly, it’s going to take a collective shift in how women are viewed and treated before true progress can be made.
Research shows that upwards of 90% of the entire population hold some sort of bias against women. Men are more likely to be seen as brilliant. This tells us that representation matters, but until we address our hidden beliefs about women, no progress can be made.
Wake up.
Once you become aware of the issue, you can no longer ignore it. You have to learn to become mindful of the role you play in either the solution or problem. Self-discover to disclose biases you have obtained by simply growing up in a patriarchal world. We all have them, but not all of us are aware of them, let alone strive to overcome them.
Learn to recognize them when they arise and release them without judgment. With concerted focus over time, you will begin to alter these biases and replace them with more conscientious beliefs.
Stand Up.
As you learn to discern between your unconscious and conscious biases, you also start to become aware of your limiting beliefs. Self-exploration is anything but easy, but it leads directly to self-mastery. It is in this process of evolving that we learn the most about ourselves.
Once you begin to stand in your truth, you naturally become an advocate for others. In social situations, amongst friends or co-workers, you’ll find yourself starting to stand up for your newly-held beliefs.
Speak up.
Do your part by combatting stereotypes about girls and women. Lead by example. Start at home; begin with you.
The only way for a movement to gain enough traction to create lasting change is by increasing awareness about the problem. This can only be done by talking about it. Next time you notice female-discrimination, call it out. Now that you know better, do better.