Report: 68% of working women in Connecticut were hit hard by pandemic
“Women, as you know, have been called the ‘shock absorbers’ of COVID-19. If we look at the impact, it’s been tremendous because they make up 50 to 70 percent of some of our big industries like food service, education and health care.”
Jennifer Openshaw, CEO of Girls With Impact
A bleak picture has emerged of the pandemic’s impact on working women.
In Connecticut, 68 percent of women say their ability to return to work has been impaired and 33 percent reported a decrease in their income. For women of color, the problem was worse with 50 percent reporting a decrease in their monthly income.
That’s according to a new report released Wednesday titled, “A Post-COVID Economic Recovery for Women,” which aims to provide solutions to the crisis.
“Women, as you know, have been called the ‘shock absorbers’ of COVID-19. If we look at the impact, it’s been tremendous because they make up 50 to 70 percent of some of our big industries like food service, education and health care,” said Jennifer Openshaw, CEO of Girls With Impact, who spearheaded the report.
Openshaw presented the findings and recommendations at a press conference in Hartford. She was joined by State Treasurer Sean Wooden, Chris DiPentima, CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, Shaena McPadden, a vice president at JP Morgan Chase, and Shannon Marimón, executive director of ReadyCT.
The recommendations solicited input from leaders in state government and major nonprofits and organizations across the state, including reforming policies around child care assistance, training in industries that are growing like technology, advanced manufacturing, and green energy, and launching new initiatives to increase women’s access to venture capital.
Working women with families took on more child care responsibilities during the pandemic, studies show, reducing their hours or leaving their jobs entirely.
As for support for younger women, ages 18 to 24, in addition to job training for growing fields, including apprenticeships, the report also recommends teaching them professional skills early on such as financial literacy, problem-solving, networking and negotiations.
Marimón said her organization focuses on getting young women, particularly young women of color, interested in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields, otherwise known as STEM — which is seeing a “huge demand for talent” in Connecticut.
“Information technology jobs have an average salary of over six figures, and continue to rise, with nearly 6,000 openings in the state right now. Advanced manufacturing is all about computational skills such as artificial intelligence and robotics and employers cannot find the talent they need to optimize production,” Marimón said.
“And in the midst of a global pandemic, our health care and bioscience sectors are in need of a high-skilled workforce more than ever,” she added. “Yet girls, and particularly girls of color, do not perceive themselves as having STEM habits of mind or even STEM aptitude.”
At its recent business expo, the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce held a panel on “Avoiding the Impostor Syndrome,” said Tameika G. Miller, vice president of Marketing & Program Development, referring to psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills or accomplishments and fears being exposed as a fraud.
“Typically, people of color and women tend to doubt their ability, and certainly when we look at the pandemic and all the changes and interruptions to careers, sometimes that fear was worsened,” Miller said.
The report also includes suggestions for improving racial equity in the workforce such as including people of color on hiring committees and in the vetting process when considering candidates for jobs.