In 2020, a staggering 2.3 million women left the US workforce as the global pandemic prompted the world to shut down and children began virtually learning from their dining tables. In fact, from March 2020 — when the pandemic first kicked off — until the following March, women accounted for 53% of labor force departures in the US. What may be more concerning, however, is that a US Bureau of Labor Statistics report finds that of the 328,000 jobs gained in April 2021, 102% of the net job gains belonged to men.
But what happens when women are left out of the workforce? And what can companies do to retain this deep and diversified pool of talent?
Analysts at McKinsey interviewed Dr. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of the report America’s recovery from the 2020 ‘shecession’: Building a female future of childcare and work. In the brief, she notes that historically, economic recessions have hit men harder, but the Covid-19 pandemic is the first downturn where women left the workforce in droves as they were forced to choose between their families and their careers.
Beyond the immediate loss of wages and benefits, women who take leave from work — whether due to the demands of virtual learning in a global pandemic or for maternity leave — also risk forgoing career advancement opportunities, including promotions and stretch roles. Moreover, these setbacks don’t disappear once a woman returns to the workplace; studies have shown that women who take a year off make less moving forward than their peers who did not have a career break. For the women themselves, many lament losing part of their identity – the side of themselves that could command a board room or manage a complicated project to completion.
From a socio-economic perspective, DeFrancesco Soto warns that the implications of women leaving the workforce could last at least a decade. Women who filled service industry roles may really struggle to re-enter the workforce since many of these jobs were lost in the massive shift to automation. Without extensive retraining or ‘upskilling’, these women will struggle to find gainful employment that will pay them a living wage.
But what can employers do to help? In Kathy Caprino’s “Supporting Today’s Workforce” series for Forbes, she spoke with experts who suggest that the first step is for managers to better understand the circumstances that led to their employee’s departure in the first place. They can also help brainstorm solutions that provide meaningful support that allows employers to create a desirable workplace for women whose previous needs were not met. The knee-jerk reaction here is to offer access to childcare, either through on-site childcare centers or benefits that help offset the truly astronomical cost of daycare facilities and after-school programming for older children. For most employers, however, this is not feasible, and even if it were, there simply aren’t enough daycare providers to manage an influx of newly eligible children.
What has emerged, however, is that flexibility is key for these women. Offering flexible hours, work-from-home options, or otherwise continuing to invest in options that allow women to be able to work remotely should the need arise would go a long way towards the creation of a work-life balance. Additionally, you can make your business more appealing to women by offering benefits that are “meaningful, flexible and fit with many different lifestyles.” Further, the experts suggest that as a company, you should seek to create a culture of inclusivity, including but not limited to elevating women to positions of power and ensuring gender diversity when seeking to recruit new talent to the firm. The experts also note that having a culture where managers are willing to engage with employees to talk through issues as they arise and collaboratively develop solutions will go a long way towards building your company back better in the post-pandemic environment.
