Women hit hardest by the impact of COVID-19

As we begin to emerge out of the woods and into a post-Covid, ‘new normal’ landscape, the full extent of the pandemic’s impact on jobs is starting to become apparent. While its onset highlighted many pre-existing gender inequalities in society such as discrimination and the imbalanced burden of unpaid care work, Covid has caused further damage to the gender divide through a higher rate of female furloughs and redundancies, unparalleled work/life balance challenges, an increase in domestic violence cases, and mental health and wellbeing setbacks to name a few.

Women deflated as post-pandemic pressure increases

The collective female perspective is that they are feeling more stressed and discouraged since the pandemic began. A lack of adequate support from line managers and organisations is only exacerbating the issue of increased pressure from all angles, and therefore negatively impacting women’s relationship with their employers, as well as creating a sense of disillusionment towards continuing their career paths.

Has years of progress towards equality taken a U-turn?

On a global scale, women have been hit the hardest by COVID-19’s effects on employment and we are now threatened with the potential of a permanent plummet in the female labour force participation rate. The cost of this would be a significant increase in the gender pay gap, an unsurmountable loss of talent and potential, and the unravelling of years of progress towards equal societies and workplaces.

Now is the time to act both personally and at an organisational level

We must act now at a personal and organisational level to prevent losing a huge proportion of the female workforce and take the appropriate steps to build back a more inclusive, supportive, and representative workplace culture and society with gender equality in mind. 

***

Article written by Tilly Smith, Conference Production Manager - Business Forums International Ltd.

Addressing gender specific challenges in 2022

Covid has highlighted a range of gender specific challenges for UK employers. BFI is running a number of summits, workshops, webinars and In-house training to tackle these issues head on. With compassion and humour, delegates will explore the issues, engage in live conversations and hear case studies and discussion groups. Practical sessions will equip attendees with the resources and confidence to ensure their organisation remains an employer of choice. Content is highly-researched and delivered by expert practitioners and leaders in their field. 

Summits

• Women in the Workplace Summit - A Post-Covid landscape  - 15th June '22