Covid-19 has exposed the inequality facing working women – and could force the Government to act
Government and businesses will be hard-pressed to simply continue to ignore their own unequal, discriminatory policies after Covid-19
The resounding theme of how the pandemic impacted the lives, finances and career trajectory of women has been lack of childcare (Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
By Cate Sevilla
When the pandemic first disrupted our working lives, there was reason to hope that the lives of working women, and mothers in particular, might actually improve. Flexible hours and remote working, once dismissed by bosses across the country as being too disruptive, became the norm. In many families, both parents were suddenly at home – and, you'd have thought, more able to equitably share the burdens of housework and childcare.
But women's lives didn't improve. In fact, for many, they got dramatically worse. The true impact the last year has had on the careers of women – on an international level – is still coming to light. In early February the Women and Equalities committee published its damning 'Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact' report and subsequent recommendations to the Government. (The Government's response is due by 9 April 2021).
Their findings were disturbing, but unfortunately, not exactly a surprise. The report found that not only are women – and particularly BIPOC women – more likely to have lost their jobs during the pandemic, but those who were able to keep their jobs and work from home were then burdened with providing significantly more hours of childcare than their male counterparts.
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The women who had lost their jobs were then, once again, disproportionately impacted by government policy and lack of childcare. Take for example the Universal Credit benefit contingency that requires claimants to prove they're actively looking for work – as 90 per cent of single parents in the UK are women, how on earth are single-family homes without any form of childcare meant to meet this requirement? Even women business owners were hit, as women-founded businesses globally received less VC funding in 2020 than they did in 2019.
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In this context, the thought of "returning to normal" in 2021 may sound to many women like the lesser of two evils. Yet the silver lining in all this is that the pandemic has both exacerbated and shone a giant, neon light on pre-existing flaws within the workplace, government, and childcare industry that can no longer be ignored or silenced. Government and businesses will be hard-pressed to simply continue to ignore their own unequal, discriminatory policies, as it seems they're finally being held to account and being forced to reckon their attitude and decision-making around childcare, flexible and part time working, and even paternity pay.
The resounding theme of how the pandemic impacted the lives, finances and career trajectory of women has been lack of childcare. Despite childcare being of 'vital importance' and a necessary provision for women participating in the workforce, the Women and Equalities committee found that the UK government had "astonishingly" ignored the problems with childcare in both its 2020 Summer Economic Statement and Winter Economic Plan. As Dr Costa Dias from the Institute of Fiscal Studies told the committee, affordable care for parents is "crucial to allowing women to work in an uninterrupted way through a longer period of their working lives". It's not just a nice-to-have for women to feel less burned out, or what should be a personal financial decision for the 42 per cent of UK families with dependent children – childcare is absolutely critical and necessary to gender equality in the workplace.
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At face value, the opportunities for women at work, post Covid, seem potentially positive. We should now be granted more flexibility with our working hours as well as where we work from. The crucial nature of childcare for working parents has also become brazenly clear. Equally, most people's priorities have shifted and, parent or not, workers will be proactively seeking a healthier work-life balance when offices re-open, and we're once more invited to commute to an office five days a week. It all sounds quite promising, and there is definitely hope and possibilities afoot.
However, when you take a closer look at details of what actually needs to happen for these changes to occur both culturally and politically – the future for women and their equality in the workplace seems a lot more complicated. The truth is that the only way forward is for the government, business owners and organisations to work together and adjust their policies, funding and cultures in tandem. This will not only provide more immediate economic and mental relief for working women and mothers – but, overall, is absolutely critical to finally providing true equality for women and parents at work. And the elements that must change – such as the childcare and attitudes and policy towards flexible working, the opportunity for working mothers to progress up the career ladder – are all delicately interconnected.
For example, for flexible working, working from home, or part-time work to truly be successful, businesses must address and change their own policies and cultural prejudices around 'presenteeism'. And in order for flexible working to even be possible for more workers in the first place, the Government would need to take on the committee's recommendation to remove the 26-weeks' service threshold for employees to request flexible working arrangements in the Flexible Working Regulations 2014 act.
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Equally as important to the success of flexible working – childcare as a sector must be radically improved, as even pre-pandemic it suffered from massive issues with funding, as well as training and staff retention. Affordable, higher-quality, accessible childcare would also impact flexible working as it would allow women to have uninterrupted stretches of time while working from home. This not only greatly improves their performance and efficiency, but also the perception of their performance while not in the office by their managers and colleagues, which is critical to a woman's career trajectory.
The future of work for women and working parents is as complicated as it's always been, but its hugely positive that the pre-existing problems of inequality and discrimination have been made only more obvious as the dust begins to settle on the pandemic. The future might not feel as shiny and bright with promise as we might have hoped it would, but there is every reason to believe that significant progress towards a more equal workforce is finally, finally being made.
Cate Sevilla is the author of How To Work Without Losing Your Mind (Penguin Business: £14.99)
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