The Fix

In the Great Recession, men lost twice as many jobs as women. But from February to May, in the united states 11.5 million women lost their jobs compared with 9 million men because of business closures intended to stop the spread of Covid-19. By the end of April, women's job losses had erased a decade of employment gains.

In the 2020 recession, job losses are much higher for women. At its peak, women's unemployment had risen by 2.9 percentage points more than men's unemployment.

We spoke with Blessing Adesiyan the Founder & CEO of Mother Honestly, a global community for working mothers about the impact of the current shecession. Blessing shares her research that her organization has undertaken to better understand the impact of the economic downturn on working mother and importantly what we can do to tackle this issue.

Is your team at work psychologically safe? A team feels psychologically safe when individuals believe they won't be exposed to interpersonal or social threats for engaging in learning behaviors such as asking for help, seeking feedback, admitting errors or lack of knowledge, trying something new, or voicing work-related dissenting views. Research has shown that the absence of such threats is strongly associated with team members bringing their whole self to work, expressing their creativity, talents, and skills, learning, and innovating.

It is never too early to engage young women and men in the fight against climate change. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provided a wake-up call about the importance of teaching kids about sustainability. The report warns that greenhouse gas levels are at their highest in 800,000 years.

When it comes to advancing women at work, there is a gap between the commitment male allies say they have and what they are actually doing. It’s the same as the conversation around race: It’s not enough to say you’re not a racist, you have to actually do something to create change and take action.

Creating a more equal workplace, where you feel like you can be yourself and will be valued for that, is going to take all of us. Research finds that unequal work environments —where employees dread going  to work, don’t feel they can be honest with their manager, and may witness or experience harassment or discrimination — are the primary reasons workers quit their jobs. Approximately one in four employees dreads going to work because they do not feel safe, respected, or valued. Inequality creates exclusion and isolation, detrimentally impacting innovation, productivity, engagement, and retention. Allyship programs are one way to make employees aware of how inequality works and what they can do to solve it. For example, a 2018 study conducted by Business in the Community found that 33% of Black employees believe their ethnicity will be a barrier to their next career move, in stark contrast to just 1% of white employees. Allyship at work helps to bring the challenges of racism in organizations to the surface and importantly, how each of us can practice anti-racism.

It seems to be increasingly difficult to talk about sexism, equality, and women’s rights in a modern society that perceives itself to have achieved gender equality. When women or men complain about everyday sexism or suggest that you are unhappy about the way in which women are portrayed and perceived renders you likely to be labeled difficult or uptight.

Technology adoption could displace millions from their jobs; many others will need to change the way they work. Globally, 40 million to 160 million women may need to transition between occupations by 2030, often into higher-skilled roles. If they make these transitions, women could find more productive, better paid work; if they don’t, they could face a growing wage gap or leaving the labor market.

More women and girls are experiencing stress, anxiety, and other mental health impacts as a result of the pandemic. Experts warn that this could have devastating long-term impacts. In September, the nonprofit organization Care released findings from a study investigating 10,000 men and women's experiences of mental health across 40 countries. The findings show that 27% of women had reported increases in challenges in relation to mental illness, compared to 10% of men. The reason for the gender disparity in mental wellbeing is a result of several factors such as unpaid labor in the house which increased exponentially in many cases led to stress, worries about food, work, and health care.

You can learn more about Love in Action at blog.join-eby.com/deepak-chopra

The number of people incarcerated in America today is more than four times larger than it was in 1980. The criminal justice system disproportionately impacts poor and Black men and women. The experiences of women — as well as trans and nonbinary people — are too often lost, because men comprise the vast majority of the incarcerated population. Research is shedding light on the injustices faced by women and LGBTQ+ people behind bars, as well as on issues like money bail and family separation that disproportionately affect women.

According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, four times more women than men dropped out of the labor force in September 2020. This is having a detrimental impact on women’s financial health. Research shows that the gender savings gap has widened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with women now having a third less saved. More women than men are relying on previous savings to cover essential costs during the pandemic — depleting their already smaller savings pot. Over a third of women (35%) admitted to dipping into their savings over the past six months, compared to just 15% of men.