Women are the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic. From nurses to doctors, school teachers to orderlies, women represent 50% (or much more) of many front-line professions. Yet employment outcomes for women, particularly young women and racialized women, are the most troubling. Lynn Barr-Telford, Assistant Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada, joins Policy Speaking to share these numbers and Anjum Sultana, National Director of Public Policy & Strategic Communications at YWCA Canada, shares how the pandemic has transformed hidden trends in the labour market and offers solutions from the YWCA's 8-point feminist economic recovery plan.

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Music: Raro Bueno by Chuzausen under a creative commons license

We’d like to thank the Diversity Institute and the Future Skills Centre for partnering with us to bring you Policy Speaking in February and March. Both Diversity Institute and Future Skills Centre are valued partners of PPF, and their work contributes greatly to the conversation around innovation, skills, diversity, and inclusion in Canada. PPF is currently working with these partners on a project called Skills for the Post-Pandemic World. Papers in this series will be released in March and April.