Gender equity in the post-COVID workforce recovery

The call for action by both the public and private sectors against the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women and gender-diverse populations has been growing louder — within workplaces, within families, and now, from the Government of Canada.

Chrystia Freeland’s historic first budget, as Canada’s first tabled by a female finance minister, acknowledged that “long-standing gender inequities have only been amplified over the course of the pandemic — and it has put decades of hard-fought gains for women in the workplace at risk.” Since the start of the pandemic, more than 16,000 women have dropped out of the labour force completely, while the male labour force has grown by 91,000 people.

The pandemic has presented many industries with unprecedented hardship, but also with a unique opportunity to rebuild workforces from the ground up and toward a more equitable future. Governments must set the policy direction and the private sector must embrace the change from strategic planning to implementation, to monitoring and accountability. Incentives should be created to ensure gender equity is embedded throughout an organization.

Women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable to the COVID crisis than men’s, and women make up 39 per cent of global employment but account for 54 per cent of job losses, according to a recent McKinsey report. A UN report noted unpaid care work has increased, and not surprisingly, the burden has fallen disproportionately on women. Action, undoubtedly, is needed now.

The impacts of women leaving the workforce are far-reaching. A mass exodus could spell trouble for years of hard-fought shifts in gender norms and family dynamics. It would also represent a profound loss of skill sets held uniquely by women — meaning a significant reduction in available resources to fill gaps in talent as post-COVID economies recover.

A landmark national survey found that one third of Canadian women have seriously considered quitting their jobs during the pandemic, particularly based on the need to handle commitments to their children, homes and families. This is unavoidably made worse for already marginalized segments of the population, where the overrepresentation of young, racialized women in front-line care roles has left these populations particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

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