Returning to Normal Won’t Fix Alberta’s She-cession

How can the province rebuild post-pandemic? The answer lies in supporting the economic participation of women and gender-diverse people

Five years ago, Carolina QuintanaKohut left her job as an executive assistant for a large coffee company to stay home with her newborn. The now 37-year-old Calgarian had planned to put Dante in preschool in 2020 and look for work again—but then, the pandemic hit. “It threw all that out the window for me,” she says. At the same time, Quintana-kohut and her husband were desperate to keep his mother, who has health challenges, from having to move into a long-term care home. As a result, the couple decided Carolina would delay her dream of returning to work so she could care for both Dante and his grandmother. Like many women in mixed-sex relationships, Quintana-kohut’s salary was significantly lower than her husband’s, though they have a similar education. If and when she returns to the workforce, she will likely experience the “motherhood penalty,” the reduction in wages women come up against after having children. This wage gap will likely be compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, given that women’s economic recovery will depend on factors like availability of affordable childcare. As a person of colour, she faces more pay discrepancy and career-building challenges. Postpandemic, Quintana-kohut fears “the climb will be even harder” to go back to work. By the beginning of 2020, Alberta’s economy was still recovering from the 2014 recession, which saw unemployment peak, tax revenues tank, and oil-related sectors struggle. Then the COVID-19 pandemic crippled the economy. By July 2020, the unemployment rate had almost doubled from the 2014 recession’s worst, reaching more than 15 percent. In particular, parents, women, and gender-diverse people have been hit the hardest. It’s primarily these groups who are losing work in sectors such as childcare, retail and hospitality; working reduced hours; and staying home to be caregivers, like Quintana-kohut. As governments contemplate how economies will recover, experts are urging that they support these groups. “A meaningful economic recovery must include women and gender-diverse people,” says Sue Tomney, CEO of YW Calgary, the city’s largest and longest-serving women’s organization. While late 2020 data from the Business Council of Alberta shows that pandemic-related jobs recovery was at gender parity in the province, that data tell only part of the story. As of December, women’s labour participation in Alberta was at its lowest since 1992. Labour force numbers do not capture unpaid work like QuintanaKohut’s or predict how women will fare in future shut-downs. There is also no way to predict the wage penalty parents might accrue by spending extra time at home and with their children.

Another important consideration is how women were managing before the pandemic. If provinces truly want to “build back better,” YW Calgary and other advocates say, governments must reckon with the public health crisis while also keeping an eye on the inequalities the pandemic has brought to light. This is particularly true for Alberta. Pre-pandemic, women in Alberta were making sixty-eight cents for every dollar men earned, represented almost two-thirds of the province’s minimum wage earners, and were more likely to work part-time despite being among the country’s most educated. Alberta has the highest rate of stay-at-home mothers a nd increasingly inaccessible early childcare options. The male-dominated oil and gas industry provided 6 percent of Alberta’s jobs in 2018, but only 21 percent of those were held by women. Data on LGBTQ , Two Spirit, and racialized Albertans are lacking, as is information on how these groups are faring during the pandemic. However, advocacy organization Egale Canada reported in early 2020 that sexual and gender minorities across the country— who are more likely than average to be BIPOC—WERE experiencing the largest gaps in pay equity and housing access. Almost half of trans individuals earn less than $15,000 a year. The picture is also dire for racialized women. What we do know is that racialized women in Alberta’s biggest cities earn almost half as much as their non-racialized male counterparts. When COVID-19 hit, inequities multiplied. By April 2020, Canadian women’s participation in the workforce had plummeted from record highs to the lowest level in thirty years. Alberta’s was the lowest in forty years. Early in the pandemic, women accounted for almost two-thirds of the jobs negatively impacted by lockdowns, and racialized women were overrepresented. Most Canadians are simply longing for life to return to normal—but the truth is that pre-pandemic “normal” came with systemic inequities. That’s why community leaders like Lee Stevens of Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC) are asking that we not simply return to the pre-pandemic economy. “Normal is why we’re in this mess,” she says. Supports like CERB and tax relief frameworks are “just sticking band aids on this leaky pipe. We need to replace the whole pipe.” This metaphor resonates for a province wrestling with an economy that’s historically dependent on the oil and gas industry. Tomney, for instance, would like to see the community “change the narrative that only certain kinds of jobs are valued in our province.” Meaningful inclusion of women and minorities, she says, can help Alberta tell a different story post pandemic. While flattening the COVID-19 curve and vaccinating the population are certainly priorities for recovery, Tomney emphasizes that plans for improvement and growth must address barriers to women’s and gender-diverse people’s participation in the workforce in order to truly build a stronger post-pandemic economy. To this end, the YWCAS of Alberta— Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, and Lethbridge—published a report detailing their own recommendations for economic recovery. Women are a significant driver of economic growth. Tomney points out that paying them equitably would add $1.2 billion to Alberta’s economy. In order to reap the benefits of pay equity, however, women who are parents must first be able to afford and access the high-quality childcare necessary to work. Childcare and early childhood education are not only key to a strong economy, the report states, but also allow children to flourish. Attraction and retention of women in careers such as STEM is also critical to strong economic growth. Tomney notes that one-third of Alberta’s tech entrepreneurs are women, which is double the national average. From renewable energy to agriculture, women and gender-diverse people are still not adequately represented in Alberta’s STEM careers, and the report recommends a provincial strategy to change that. To create a more equitable future, Lee Stevens says that a guaranteed basic income and affordable childcare should be top priorities. But an economic recovery that includes all Albertans also depends on granular, everyday policies. Social procurement, she says, is one way to ensure businesses put their money towards inclusive equitable partnerships and investments. Tomney wants businesses to set diversity targets and make gender equity a topic at their team meetings. One reason is that it makes good financial sense: she stresses that, according to a 2018 report by Mckinsey & Company, companies in the top quartile for gender-diverse executive teams are 21 percent more likely to outperform on profitability— and teams that are ethnically and culturally diverse perform even better. Adopting more equitable policies is key to helping Canadian women and gender-diverse people re-enter the workforce post-pandemic. QuintanaKohut, for example, says looking after her son and her mother-in law is important for her, but she’s exhausted by how gendered and underappreciated care work is. “I feel like I’m on the fringes, like I’m not participating in society in a way that is valued,” she says. “I want to be able to participate in the economy and keep developing, using my skills to have some sort of impact.”

“A M EANINGFUL ECONOMIC RECOVERY MUST I NCLUDE WOMEN AND GENDER- DIVERSE PEOPLE,” SAYS S UE TO MNEY, CEO O F Y W C ALGARY.