Canada’s Economic Stability Hinges on an Equitable Recovery for Women
By Carmina Ravanera and Sarah Kaplan
The year 2020 has become the year of rollbacks in gender equality in Canada and around the world. Women, particularly those with children, as well as those who are racialized, Indigenous and/or low-income, are bearing the brunt of the economic fallout from COVID-19.
Our local, provincial and federal governments must enact policies to redress this inequity. If not, we stand to lose not only the progress for gender equality that has been made over the last few decades — but also our chance for a resilient pandemic recovery.
Low-income and racialized women are bearing economic losses
Pandemic lockdowns created massive job losses in women-majority sectors such as hospitality, retail and food services. In March, women made up 70 percent of employment losses for workers aged 25 to 54 in Canada. At the same time, some women’s work intensified: women occupy more than 80 percent of healthcare and social assistance jobs in Canada. These jobs tend to be low-wage and lack protections such as paid sick leave. They are also disproportionately filled by racialized and Indigenous women.
The closure of childcare services and schools means that many women have been grappling with unemployment or precarious working conditions alongside increased unpaid work. Gender norms create circumstances where mothers are more likely to take on caregiving duties than fathers, and may leave paid work to care for children. A recent survey found that 71 percent of women in Canada feel overworked, stressed, depressed, isolated, anxious or ill because of increased unpaid work. This was particularly true for Black and Indigenous women who were also less likely to be able to look for paid work.
People also feel that childcare services may currently be unsafe. Data show that 27 percent of families with children under 15 report that they will no longer send their children to childcare, some due to health concerns. This could be related to the fact that these have historically been underfunded across Canada, translating to inadequate space and services running over capacity.
Prospects for women’s participation in the labour force are now looking grim. July’s Labour Force Survey revealed that the labour force participation rate of men aged 25 to 54 is nearly on par with pre-COVID levels, but women’s rate is down by 1.4 percent. In June, for parents of school-aged children specifically, the employment rate was almost back to normal for fathers, while, for mothers, employment was down by five percent.
For low income and/or racialized women, the differences are even more stark. In July, the employment rate for low wage working women was at almost 82 percent of its pre-COVID rate, compared to almost 90 percent for low-wage working men and to over 97 percent for all workers. Further, South Asian, Arab and Black Canadians reported unemployment rates almost five percent higher when compared to all other workers, at just over 16 percent. South Asian and Black women reported higher unemployment rates than South Asian and Black men, respectively.
Read the full article in Policy Options: Canada’s economic stability hinges on an equitable recovery for women