Let's safeguard women's jobs during pandemic

Equity deserves boost during COVID-19, say Catherine Clark and Jennifer Stewart.

As we edge toward month 10 of living in a pandemic, a sub-pandemic is emerging fast and furious: the #Shecession.

Women, particularly mothers, have been juggling the stress of adapting to a virtual workplace, caring for children, spouses and aging parents while still taking on disproportionate levels of household chores. And the numbers back this up.

According to a study profiled in The Atlantic, women still take on the majority of domestic duties, with married American mothers dedicating nearly twice the time to home and childcare duties as their partners. As Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook noted, women are scooping up a “double-double” shift during the pandemic.

Not surprisingly, we're burning out. An

RBC study released last week warns that the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening decades of labour-force gains that women have fought hard to achieve, detailing the “specific, unprecedented blow it has dealt to women.”

The study goes on to note that “in a matter of months, the COVID-19 pandemic knocked women's participation in the labour force down from a historic high to its lowest level in over 30 years.” This means that more than 20,000 women left the workforce between February and October, with mothers of children under six making up two-thirds of the exodus.

Women have long recognized we can have it all, but not all at once. And when an influx of obligations, stresses and additional parental requirements emerge, we pick our children. That is partly because women in the workforce still earn disproportionately less than their spouses or male colleagues, so when a couple is forced to decide who will assume domestic duties and who will continue to earn an income, the decision is a foregone conclusion.

If we fail to reinforce the strides our society has made to keep women in the workforce, then our entire pandemic recovery fails too.

But that's not good enough anymore. It's 2020, and we need to put in place policy-related solutions so that we don't have to choose.

How do we do this in the short term? Our

No. 1 commitment must be to keep our schools and daycares open, and open safely. We need to make sure our kids can not only have a semblance of normalcy during a pandemic that is upending their lives, but that women can continue to work and build careers.

This will require a unified approach to managing the pandemic that ensures consistency for all Canadians, regardless of geography or socio-economic status. It means a renewed commitment to sacrifices like forgoing large gatherings, social outings and unnecessary interactions as the holidays approach, in order to limit the spread.

It will also require a pan-Canadian approach, with politics and partisanship thrown to the wayside. We need a strategy that unifies the management of COVID-19, putting a laser focus on the long-term, strategic vision of what tomorrow's economy and workforce will look like, and who it will include.

We cannot forget that worldwide, women earn almost $20 trillion in income and drive the majority of purchasing decisions. We are a force to be reckoned with. But if we fail to reinforce the strides our society has made to keep women in the workforce, then our entire pandemic recovery fails too.

Recovery is much more than a vaccine or deployment of rapid testing. It also involves navigating a complex landscape that ensures we continue to take steps forward, not steps back.

If we don't prioritize keeping our children safely in schools and daycares, it's not only their futures we are sacrificing, but those of Canadian women — and the ultimate health of the Canadian economy.

We must act now to ensure women don't have to choose between their careers and their children. We owe this much to our daughters, and our sons.