Has COVID-19 driven a wedge between men and women?

The UK is currently emerging from Lockdown 3 and as I write, we’re preparing to meet friends and family outdoors once again. The press conference outlining the planned easing of restrictions came as experts predicted a ‘burnout spike’ for early 2021. Of course, health - both physical and mental - has been the centre of attention for the last 12 months, and rightly so. With the UK able to boast a highly successful vaccine roll out, it’s time we turn our attention to the lasting impact the pandemic will have on the women of our society.

Gender equality has taken a huge step backwards, as women are found to be the worst affected by the pandemic. According to research by Women’s Budget Group, by June 2020 as little as 48% of employed women were still working full time hours, due to a combination of furlough (the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme) and a high number of redundancies.  In fact, women’s roles are 1.8x more vulnerable than men’s, and 52% of people furloughed during Lockdown 1 were female. 

Before the crisis, women only held 39% of global employment, but following the first lockdown, they made up 59% of all jobs lost due to the pandemic.  To compound the issue, women lost out when it came to hiring too, with only 41.5% of those employed in April 2020 being women, compared to 45.6% at the same period in 2019.

“During lockdown women spent a far greater proportion of their time looking after children compared to men, with the difference amounting to over an hour and a quarter a day.” – Office of National Statistics blog.

It’s unsurprising to learn that women have taken on the majority of childcare responsibilities during lockdown. According to a poll by Fawcett Society in November last year, 1 in 3 working mothers have lost work or hours due to a lack of childcare. The extra burden of home schooling has meant that women have spent more time doing unpaid work than paid work, despite many of us retaining full time positions.  All this pressure is adding up, with women seemingly choosing to step away from their careers to focus on taking care of their family.

“the pandemic is reversing decades of work tackling inequalities in the UK”

There’s little room for doubt that the pandemic is reversing decades of work tackling inequalities in the UK. Despite reports that the pay gap has fallen from 9% for Generation X to 5% for millennials and Gen Y, it is believed that the gap naturally widens as women enter their 30s.  “This pay penalty is big and long-lasting, and remains for younger generations despite the progress in their early careers,” Laura Gardiner, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation shared in a statement to Reuters.  

The government suspended mandatory gender pay gap reporting in 2020, but it is set to return in October 2021.  Some businesses did however choose to voluntarily submit their report, and the Office for National Statistics revealed that the pay gap stood at 15.5% last year.  That’s a drop of 1.9% year on year, which is good news but potentially skewed; those who submitted the data when it’s not mandatory are arguably the most progressive and proactive when it comes to closing the gender gap  With the knowledge that women have since been disproportionately affected by redundancies in the last 12 months, the outlook is bleak for 2021.

“First, we must acknowledge that economic recessions have a greater impact on the disadvantaged. Working class women are the hardest hit group across all ethnicities and recognising this is the first step towards making a difference.”

So, what can be done about it?  The good news is that business leaders have significant power to help reverse the trend.  First, we must acknowledge that economic recessions have a greater impact on the disadvantaged.  Working class women are the hardest hit group across all ethnicities and recognising this is the first step towards making a difference.  Otherwise, we risk making changes that inadvertently perpetuate these inequalities.

1. Hire more women into senior positions

According to Forbes, teams make better decisions than individuals.  Whereas all male teams make better decisions 53% of the time, gender diverse teams do so 73% of the time.  I’m quite confident in saying there isn’t a single business leader in the world that would knowingly risk getting 20% of decisions wrong!

2. Increase the amount of paid leave on offer

Employment rights in the UK mean we are entitled to some amount of paid leave.  However, many people have discovered that the statutory amounts paid by their employer simply aren’t enough to live on.  Areas employers could improve on include paid sick, maternity and paternity leave, offering paid leave for dependants and even an increase in holiday allowance.

3. Make remote and flexible working arrangements permanent

Research shows that a permanent flexible working policy is particularly desired by women.  Allowing for these temporary solutions to be retained opens up a whole talent pool that was previously inaccessible by some employers.  Now roles can be fulfilled from anywhere in the world at any time, restrictions on location, childcare, and even disabilities become a moot point.

4. Outcome-based performance > Presenteeism

The McKinsey report on Women in the Workplace found that, generally speaking, women feel more pressure to succumb to an “always on” culture.  As women are more likely to be laid off or furloughed, they’re blurring the lines between work and home to feel secure in their jobs.  Flexible working alone may still result in burnt-out employees, working until all hours just to be seen online.  By putting outcomes at the fore of performance metrics, leaders can encourage their employees to maintain a healthy balance – something that is not just good for your health but is proven to boost productivity too.

5. Give genuine support to employees during the pandemic

Last year, Perkbox found that 95% of businesses took measures to support the wellbeing of their staff during the pandemic.  What’s worrying though, is only 20% of people believe their employer met their needs during the crisis.  Many businesses offer an Employee Assistance Programme as part of their benefits package, but very few employees know it exists.  Over-communicating what support is available is vital in the current circumstances.  If your business can’t afford to add benefits like these, why not look at what can be done internally?  Perhaps you could tweak the format of your performance reviews to include personal circumstances, or adjust company-wide productivity expectations to account for challenges posed by the pandemic.

6. Provide resources for homeschooling

Schools might have reopened, but virus breakouts mean that children are still being sent home to isolate. Quick-thinking employer Guidant Global thought outside the box by offering employees help with home schooling.  Going beyond normalising children interrupting video meetings, staff across the company volunteer a part of their working week to teach their colleagues’ children via Zoom.  Not just freeing up some time for working parents, the scheme also fosters a sense of togetherness and equality within their culture. A truly admirable move!

7. Monitor salary variations

12 months ago, there was chaos.  Many of us abandoned our typical duties to fight fires across our businesses.  Now, as we adjust to the new working world, is the perfect time to create structure around our equality policies.  Keep tabs on the outcome of promotions and pay rises, and report regularly on a breakdown of gender, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality.  Are you currently using the flexi-furlough scheme?  Assess the gender breakdown of employees in your business; could you be at risk of unintentional gender discrimination?

8. Make diversity integral to business growth

As specialists in the talent process, I would be remiss not to mention the role of diversity in hiring.  Whilst this could be an entire blog (and then some) on its’ own, there are simple things you can implement now that will have lasting impact.  Do you have a Diversity & Inclusion policy?  It’s worrying how many businesses we come across who have never introduced one!  If your policy is just words on a piece of paper, perhaps you could bring in unconscious bias training to help embed diversity into your culture.  Not every business works with an external talent partner, but if you do, why not instruct your recruiter to remove all names and gender identifiers from applicant’s CVs before they are presented to hiring managers? That way, all they can consider are the skills and experience of the job seeker, and not make assumptions based on their gender, ethnicity etc.

“As business leaders, we are in a unique position to bring about change”

The effects of the pandemic on society will be felt long after restrictions are eased.  We’ve seen racism, ageism and cronyism take centre stage for all the wrong reasons over the last 12 months.  As business leaders, we are in a unique position to bring about change.  The only way I can see us surviving in the aftermath of COVID-19 is with a human-centric approach.  I’m a proud, working class woman with no degree, now in a position to support others. I have no intention of pulling the ladder up behind me.  Who else is prepared to take on the challenge of making the ‘new normal’ work of us all, and not just a few?

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