YWCA weighs in on plan for recovery
Disproportionate stresses on women and girls must be addressed, agency says
EDMONTON The YWCAS of Alberta are bringing forward a list of recommendations to the province to ensure the COVID-19 economic recovery plan has a gender-based lens so women and girls do not get left behind.
Katherine O’neill, chief executive director of YWCA Edmonton, said very early on it was identified that women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic from areas ranging from job status to increased unpaid labour.
“A large percentage of women are actually the essential workers on the front line and health-care workers, and then you have the fact of increased gender-based violence, you have the fact that many, many women are in sectors that have been hard hit by the job losses like the hospitality sector, the travel industry and such,” O’neill said.
“The last piece is this increase in unpaid labour. Women and girls already took on unpaid labour burden in a household when it came to child care and elder care and things like that, long before this crisis. But when you add in remote learning and things like that, we are seeing this kind of perfect storm of factors that have come together and added stress on women and girls.”
One of the six recommendations to the Alberta Economic Recovery Council includes assembling a child-care task force to create an accessible, affordable and safe child-care system.
“This sector is being really hard hit because of the fact many people are not back to work,” O’neill said. “There’s really going to be a big challenge, particularly for women to get back into the workforce, if that is not looked at.”
Another area the YWCAS say the province should look at is attracting and retaining a gender-diverse workforce in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs. According to the recommendations, 45 per cent of young women have lost jobs since Feb 9.
O’neill said that by attracting women to STEM jobs, the province can look to the future at new industries and in a new economy.
“This is going to take years to recover from and Alberta was already in economic decline, and so we really wanted to give something that is long-term and aspirational, and something we can all as a community come together and build,” O’neill said.
YW Calgary, YWCA Banff, YWCA Edmonton and YWCA Lethbridge made the decision to come together as a collective voice to provide the recommendations to ensure all levels of government understand the “unusual impact” the pandemic has had.
“We want to make sure that no woman, no girl, no child is left behind after we emerge from this crisis,” O’neill said.
Other recommendations include making permanent pay top-ups for front-line professionals working with persons with disabilities, the elderly, and those experiencing domestic violence and homelessness, and create a communications strategy that promotes Alberta as a safe and inclusive province.
“There are significant challenges that we foresee, particularly for women and girls and families, but there’s a path to success here,” O’neill said.