THE pandemic has exacerbated the inequality gap at a time in history when it is supposed to be closing.
And not in a small way. It’s taking a tremendous toll.
Women’s experiences at home, their health, their own careers and economic wellbeing have all been negatively affected.
A recent study found women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable during the pandemic than men’s jobs.
And bosses who may have been more flexible about employees working from home last year are now demanding more productivity, yet the situational demands for mothers, in particular, haven’t changed.
If men question that, then we only need to look at what is happening in our own homes through repeated lockdowns and home schooling.
Be honest with ourselves, who in the home is carrying the majority of the burden of unpaid care or domestic responsibilities?
My hand is up, while I consider myself supportive, given our own family situation, it isn’t me.
This was hammered home to me over the past fortnight.
After being identified as being at a Tier 1 exposure site and being forced into 14-days isolation, I worked from home while my wife again had to home school two children while also looking after a toddler. This has been her lot on and off for 18 months now.
To do this, she has had to continually hit the pause button on her own working career, to not just accommodate her male partner’s career, but for the sake of our family.
So couple that with no separation between home/family and work, shouldering most of the emotional fallout for young kids to persistent lockdowns, minimal outlets because things are closed, and the strain is enormous.
A September 2020 study by McKinsey found mothers are more than three times as likely, compared with fathers, to meet the majority of the demands for housework and caregiving during the pandemic.
The researchers explained that many women also take more psychological ownership for how the home is going.
“The normal pressure of this during the pandemic, plus … dealing with the impact on their work, (can be) overwhelming,” the researchers wrote.
The risk, of course, is more women walking away from their own careers altogether.
A recent US study of 40,000 employees by Lean In found a staggering 25 per cent of women were considering leaving the workforce or slowing down their careers.
Something has to give in their lives. Their balance has been lost.
There can be no doubt the pandemic and its economic fallout are having a regressive effect on gender equality.
And it is a trend that we need to turn around.
We can’t allow ourselves as a society to make quick giant leaps backwards from the small and gradual steps women have won for themselves over a long period of time.
One professional local woman shared her personal story with me about this issue this week.
She said: “Throughout the pandemic I have been still working full-time, and it has been even more busy and stressful than usual.
“The burden at home which falls upon women’s shoulders has remained the same. I am still doing half of the chores, cooking, cleaning, shopping and helping kids with homework, drop offs and pick-ups.
“I have a supportive partner who meets me half way so that is good.
“However, the disparity which I have always felt is the organising of the household as a whole and of the people within it, almost always falls on to me as the woman. I’m doing the thinking and planning that my male partners throughout my life don’t naturally do. “
Her story is not uncommon. Time we start listening, hey?
