The downturn’s double whammy against working women
Experts fear the career gains women have made since the '60s and '70s will reverse, as domestic burdens during Covid fall disproportionately to women and many female-dominated fields see big losses
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First came the layoffs in women-dominated fields. Now moms’ careers are suffering as they shoulder childcare and housework.
by Tony Mecia and Cristina Bolling
You’ve surely seen the statistic that women on average earn 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. It’s called the gender wage gap, and it has narrowed over the last several decades. Now, though, the country’s response to the Covid crisis could cause that gap to widen.
Unlike previous economic downturns, this one is hitting women especially hard. The sectors that are suffering the most — restaurants, retail, hospitality — happen to be staffed by more women than men. And now, with many families working from home and kids requiring supervision of online schooling, much of the housework and childcare is falling disproportionately to women — and keeping them out of the workforce.
“We could see an expansion of the gender wage gap,” says Jill Yavorsky, an assistant professor of sociology and organizational science at UNC Charlotte who studies labor markets. “We could see women’s careers stalling. The fear is that many of the gains we have made since the 1960s and 1970s will actually go in the opposite direction — not just stalled or slowed, but reversed.”
Historically, there are a number of reasons why women earn on average less than men, and it’s not only because of pay discrimination. Female-dominated fields tend to be lower-paying, such as education, and some higher-paying fields, like engineering, draw far fewer women than men. Even before the pandemic, women were more likely than men to drop out of the workforce and reduce their hours to care for children.
Those trends look as though they have been exacerbated in the last several months because of the economic effects of society’s reaction to Covid.
Job losses in women-dominated fields: Many of the sectors with the biggest job losses in the Charlotte region happen to be those that employ a lot of women. With restaurants closed for weeks and hotels empty, the leisure and hospitality sector in the Charlotte region lost about 40% of its jobs in the 2Q, according to an analysis by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. About 57% of those jobs locally are held by women. Other women-dominated sectors with big job losses include healthcare (82% women) and retail (53% women).
“A higher proportion of the folks who work in occupations that tend to require personal contact with their customers tend to be women,” says Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wells Fargo. “They have been disproportionately impacted in terms of job losses.”
Some of the fields that have lost the most jobs in the Charlotte region in the last six months — including healthcare, accommodation/food service and retail — also happen to be sectors in which women make up the majority of workers. Male-dominated fields such as construction have lost fewer jobs. (Source: Ledger analysis of Census data from Charlotte Regional Business Alliance)
Since March, 56% of people filing for unemployment in Mecklenburg County have been women, according to state data — which is notable because women make up a smaller portion of the workforce than men.
Cutbacks in work time: But the effects spread beyond women losing jobs at higher rates. Studies have shown that women who are still working are tending to put in fewer hours since the pandemic started — particularly those with children.
A June study from Washington University in St. Louis found that between February and April, mothers with young children reduced their work hours four to five times more than fathers largely because daycares and schools were closed and they picked up extra duties around the house. “The pandemic may further exacerbate gender gaps in childcare and housework at the cost of women’s work commitments,” the study said.
And see if this resonates in your house: “Previous research has shown that women and men equally perceive domestic tasks needing to be done, but men are more likely to ignore these responsibilities, leaving them to be done by women partners.”
For hairstylist Katie Benton, a shift in family demands because of the pandemic has caused a big cut in her hours — and her pay.
Benton, who lives in Union County, has cut back on her work at Diviniti Salon in Matthews by 12 hours a week so she can help her third grader, Jackson, with his online schooling. She now works 20 hours during the workweek, plus every other Saturday.
Her husband, Phillip, works from home one day a week for his job in inside sales at a lumber yard so he can help Jackson while his wife works. But the rest of the online schooling burden falls to mom.
Hairstylist Katie Benton, who works at Diviniti Salon in Matthews, cut back her hours so she could supervise her 8-year-old son’s online learning.
It was a no-brainer that Katie’s hours — not Phillip’s — would be cut, she said, since Phillip’s job provides benefits and a higher wage.
“He is definitely our primary income. I have more flexibility with hair,” she said.
Keeping an active 8-year-old plugged into online learning all day is taxing her patience as well as her bank account.
“I’m not cut out to be a teacher,” she said.
Yavorsky, the UNCC professor, says the effects of the downturn on women can be mitigated in a few ways: Men can take more responsibility for housework and childcare, and companies can provide working parents more flexibility and require less “face time” in-person or on Zoom. Taking on additional responsibilities at home are probably causing women to sacrifice leisure time or sleep.
“We don’t know that they will be able to sustain being a full-time teacher at home and working full-time,” she said. “Usually, something has to give.”
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire; Reporting intern: David Griffith