#CHOOSE TO CHALLENGE
Women accept leadership role in a COVID-19 world
While International Women's Day is being observed globally on March 8, many women and girls may simply be too busy, tired and disheartened to take much notice.
The coronavirus has exacerbated difficulties stemming from longstanding and systemic gender inequality, including here in Canada. More than ever, it is imperative that women and men, girls and boys stop to reflect on both shortfalls and progress, as we celebrate the females in our own communities and honour their social, economic, cultural and political achievements.
The global United Nations Women theme for International Women's Day 2021 is “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” It recognizes the tremendous efforts by females around the globe to shape a more equitable future and recovery from the pandemic. Calling on everyone to spread its #Choosetochallenge campaign, UN Women hope collective voices will no longer be ignored.
The United Nations began observing International Women's Day in 1975, when women workers were earning significantly less than male colleagues performing the same tasks. Finding quality childcare was challenging. Many females had personal encounters of violence and harassment through the actions of males.
Unacceptable then, these unresolved issues continue to diminish and damage women today -- 46 years later.
Dr. Dusty Johnstone, the coordinator of the Sexual Misconduct Response and Prevention Office at the University of Windsor, used to teach women and gender studies and now provides support to members of the campus community who have experienced sexual violence. She is keenly aware of the importance of women's contributions, sacrifices and continual fight against gender-based inequality.
“I think that in 2021, International Women's Day is particularly important because in Canada at least, it is the first year we are looking retrospectively at what has been happening since the pandemic began . What stands out so obviously is what women have done to help our society weather this experience,” Johnstone says.
“In times of crisis, women become the shock absorbers of the community and the culture. I think that is what we see here,” she adds. “Men have been contributing, too, but there are really gender-specific ways that we have relied on women to survive in the past year. In particular, women's work always comes back to care -the care they do privately in their own homes and the ways they've had to uproot their lives to care for children, teach them at home, and balance their jobs or leave their jobs to do these things. Leaving one's job doesn't mean just leaving behind economic security. It can also mean leaving behind a career or one's identity, a part of one's self. That's a huge sacrifice.”
Many women are now wondering what their next move is, since their chosen careers were disrupted by the pandemic shuttering their workplaces or closing down their own businesses.
Johnstone also feels for “those who have to make the impossible choice of leaving their own families to take care of other people, who had to take risks with their own safety because they had to find ways to pay the bills.”
Faces working on the frontline are predominantly female.
“When we look at essential workers, the majority of them are women. When we look more closely at the caring professions, 80 to 95 per cent of people doing the most intimate, high-risk care are women. I'm thinking of the longterm care workers who have been ravaged by this disease, who are keeping other people's grandparents alive to the best of their ability and shepherding them through the isolation of dying in this time,” Johnstone says.
“I think of the trauma that comes at the end of their day of doing essential and caring work. These women don't get to go home and receive mental health support,” says Johnstone.
Their families need them, domestic work is waiting. Women are just trying to find ways to get it done and they are exhausted.
“As we honour women's incredible contributions and the burdens they bear, I think honouring International Women's Day this year is also about grieving the work that had to happen and what has occurred in women's lives. I think that grief is the respect we show for that cost.”
Observing International Women's Day sharpens the focus on the past while turning our attention forward. “As we hopefully get to a place of recovery, what does this mean for the women who have made sacrifices to sustain us during the pandemic? What do we do for them to help them recover from this experience?” Johnstone asks.
“Essential work is essential work. We only notice it in times of crisis. It should be acknowledged as essential and rewarded as such. People doing essential work should never have to struggle to meet the basic cost of living. We need to honour them by delivering economically.”
Canadian women continue to earn substantially less than men on average – about 30 cents less on the dollar. “We also know when women take maternity leave, they tend to suffer a two- to three-year career setback. I'm grateful we have maternity leave, but our conceptualization of it isn't enough,” Johnstone says.
At the university's Sexual Misconduct Response and Prevention Office, there is a current decline in women seeking support for instances of gender-based violence and harassment. Johnstone wonders if that is due to fewer in-person interactions on campus.
“I am concerned about what I don't know. I wonder if, as the pandemic subsides and people start seeking support again, there will be stories of devastation as women say they did what they had to just to survive.”
Johnstone also points to women who must participate in online spaces without opportunity of reprieve or opting out, potentially exposing them to people intent on cyber-bullying them.
As the coronavirus vaccine is rolled out locally, she thinks “there are some things we don't want to see return to normal. We could see this pandemic as one of those shocking disruptions in social life and find better ways of doing things as a consequence of it.”
There are three things we need, starting with reliable access to universal childcare, Johnstone notes. “This shouldn't just fall on moms to sort out. Universal childcare is an important right for children and for women.”
Women also need access to publicly funded mental healthcare. “We're in a health crisis. Women specifically are struggling because of the additional burdens of care they are allocated. It's an unreasonable amount, over a year.”
Economic security is another necessity.
“Women are the ones doing the most vulnerable work and receiving the least financial security for it. People are working multiple jobs and living in poverty while providing essential care to members of our community. At a minimum, we owe them the right to the basic cost of living and not having to live with the undue burden of financial stress, unsecure employment, no access to paid leave or sick days, and no access to childcare,” Johnstone says. “We have to build out the social fabric that allows them to do all they achieve for our society while providing for themselves and their families.”
The federal government also realizes action is required now. MP Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development, recently announced the Government of Canada's Feminist Response and Recovery Fund, committing $100 million for projects that will break down barriers and help women fully recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Proposals can be submitted until March 25, 2021 by Canadian notfor-profit women's and Indigenous organizations, research organizations, institutes and centres of expertise and educational institutions working to address barriers for women and girls.
“The feminist response and recovery fund will support local, regional and national efforts to end violence against women and girls, improve women's economic
security and to increase the participation of women and girls in decision-making roles,” Monsef says.
“Women have been hardest hit by COVID. They continue to take on the majority of the work on the frontlines of the pandemic.”
On March 8, people throughout Windsor and Essex County will mark International Women's Day, taking time for personal reflection, attending online celebrations and fundraisers, and thanking the influential women in their own lives.
“International Women's Day acts
as a reminder of the contributions of women and how hard women have had to work to have them acknowledged. That's an ongoing task, never greater than perhaps at this moment,” Johnstone says.
“What I don't want on International Women's Day is a virtual pat on the back, and comments like, `Oh, women, do such nice things,'” she says. “Cool, thank you for the acknowledgement. But it is insufficient. Acknowledgement needs to be matched with actions that affect change.”
International Women's Day acts as a reminder of the contributions of women and how hard women have had to work to have them acknowledged.