It is safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone in different ways, and has brought along many challenges with it. With the current global situation, no matter where you are from, what industry you are working in, or what gender you are, everyone has been affected differently.
It’s worth recognising that some people have found lockdown to have unexpected benefits, such as more flexibility, enabling families to enjoy more quality time together, perhaps even embracing a different pace of life, to name a few. That being said, there is a notable flip side, and this article will focus particularly on the challenges faced by female founders. Which leads me to explore the following question - do female founders face bigger challenges when it comes to COVID-19?
A surprising revelation
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), women are particularly exposed to this crisis as they are on the frontline of the fight against the virus itself. Women make up 70% of global healthcare workers and as much as 95% of long-term care workers.
Not only that but going back to our specific area, women in tech face a number of challenges every day that their male counterparts don’t. We have addressed this at length in past columns, and when you add the pandemic into the mix, it begs the question - has this raised even more hurdles for women, that men may not necessarily face?
The pandemic has brought with it a number of obstacles for the economy and workers in general, however recent studies have shown that women are being hit harder than men. Business Insider showed in a recent report carried out by the Department of Labour, that more than 701,000 jobs have been lost over the past two months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, according to an analysis conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), about 60% of those losses were experienced by women.
In almost all the sectors that faced losses, women were shown to have faced greater losses than men according to the same analysis. In the following four sectors - educational and health services, financial services, construction, and information - the IWPR showed a number of women were reported to have lost their jobs while employment for men actually increased.
In many of the industries where employee cuts have been made, women are not only losing their jobs, but they are also losing them at a disproportionately higher rate than men who work in the same field. To conclude, a study carried out by the University of Exeter’s Business School actually found that women are almost twice as likely as men to have lost their job during the pandemic.
The gender pay gap
This issue has been addressed in more recent times, which is a positive step forward, however women are still currently a disproportionate percentage of those who are being paid less within the economy. Emily Martin, VP for education and workplace justice at NWLC recently explained in an CNBC article: “Women of colour in particular are over-represented in low-wage roles.”
When you consider the pandemic, bearing in mind there was a significant gender pay gap already, who do you think may be affected more? The ones who are already suffering?
Martin added: “When you have a crisis like this, those jobs are often the first ones that employers let go. These are employees, who by definition, an employer isn’t valuing as much and so I think that’s one reason why we’re seeing women losing their jobs at higher rates.”
In a recent piece by The Guardian, it stated: “The coronavirus pandemic could set women's economic progress back half a century, according to warnings from international institutions including the UN and the World Economic Forum... Since women worked fewer hours in jobs that paid less per hour, limited childcare options had a direct effect on unequal pay.”
Childcare
Which brings us nicely on to my next point. Whilst at the beginning of this article, I referred to the benefit for some females of being at home with their children, there is another side to the conversation.
The role of childcare. I cannot speak for everyone here, however many females I have personally spoken to have said childcare lands on them, that childcare is automatically seen as the female’s responsibility. When you consider that a lot of women who have been working from home during lockdown now have the added responsibility of being a full-time parent as well as a teacher, it leads to the question - how is it possible for them to find the time to achieve all of these responsibilities in equal measure?
Again Martin said: “Another thing which is really unique about the current crisis compared to other recessions is that at the same moment where there is this real economic contraction, our whole caregiving infrastructure in this country has been shut down.”
Evidence shows that women are still taking on the majority of caregiving responsibilities, and if there is a lack of childcare support at home, this could be impacting on their availability to fulfil all their work duties, and as a result impacting their employment. She added: “That might also be why women are feeling the pinch of this a little harder because their flexibility is going down at the very moment when employers are trying to figure out who they need to let go.”
A positive perspective on the long term
Some recent figures and predictions shown in The Telegraph have suggested that this may set women, and the work they have done in fighting for more equality, back around 30 years. Yes, you read that right, women may have to wait almost a century until they earn the same as men due to these issues.
However, as much as I have discussed how the pandemic has affected women in a challenging way, as women do best, let’s turn this into a positive – or at least a potential positive.
As people, workers, and employers have been through such a life-changing experience this year, this could bring a fresh start. So many people have been working from home for months, and as we slowly return back to the office, we will naturally see changes to adhere with social distancing rules and ‘the new normal’. Why don’t we make ‘the new normal’ eliminating gender bias, and more equal pay?
The whole culture behind work is gradually changing from demanding face-to-face interaction, sitting at a desk all day, and working rigid long hours, to flexible working and in many cases, remote working. The issues shared above has the potential to derail a lot of women’s career advancements and earnings, and having the ability to work from home more could lead to narrowing the gender gap, and a wider range of career paths available. As we emerge from the pandemic let’s allow and encourage women to produce and flourish even more than before.
One final note, my intention with this article is not to create a competition; as I mentioned at the start, there’s no doubt this difficult time is affecting everyone, and in different ways. However, this issue does need to be addressed and I believe that when there is a clear human disadvantage - whether social, societal, professional or otherwise - we have a collective responsibility to highlight it to ensure it is recognised on a wider scale. We can all do something about this in order to create a future brighter; when we do, we all stand to benefit.
Anna Flockett is the Editor of Startups Magazine, one of Calmer’s long-term valued partners. Not only is Anna passionate about championing technology focused startups, she is particularly keen to encourage more women into technology and is dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of introducing more girls into STEM subjects (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in schools.