WOMEN, WORK AND COVID-19
THE ROAD TO RECOVERY BEGINS AND ENDS WITH THE CARE ECONOMY
BY KATHERINE SCOT T W
omen have been front- lined and sidelined by the pandemic in their roles as primary care- givers and care work-
ers in the public and private sectors and as the majority of workers in sectors hard- est hit by ongoing economic shutdowns. Women were certainly not all in the same place going into the crisis, and their lives since February 2020 have followed different paths. Groups and communities least able to shoulder the social and economic fallout of COVID-19 have borne the greatest risks and damaging impacts. The third wave of the coronavirus is
now rolling over Ontario’s major popula- tion centres. Large numbers of low-wage fe- male workers have once again been laid off, while others scramble to stickhandle virtual schooling and care for ill family members. Essential workers on the frontlines in care and education are working under acute stress; a year into the pandemic, many are still without access to basic protections such as paid sick leave, effective protective equip- ment or safe working conditions. Federal emergency benefits have played
a critical role for women, offsetting a devas- tating collapse in employment earnings, es- pecially for the most marginalized, but pro- vincial investments in women’s employment
30 ETFO VOICE | SUMMER 2021
have largely been an afterthought, exposing the systematic undervaluing of women’s paid and unpaid work. The federal budget holds out the prom-
ise of transformational change in the pro- vision of child care across the country – a critical support to women and families everywhere – but the fight over the future of the care economy is far from over. Get- ting the provinces on board won’t be easy politically; many, such as Ontario, are al- ready bent on a course of austerity and fur- ther privatization. The stakes for women couldn’t be higher.
WOMEN, WORK AND COVID-19
A year’s worth of economic data shows clearly that women have shouldered the largest eco- nomic losses throughout the pandemic. Female-majority sectors were hit hard and
fast. Across the country, by the end of April, 1.5 million women had lost their jobs and an- other 1.0 million were working less than half of their regular hours. This compares to fewer than 250,000 jobs lost among women in the three previous recessions combined. The largest initial employment losses
were predictably reported in the provinces most impacted by high rates of infection during the first wave of the pandemic, no- tably Quebec and Ontario. By May 2020, Ontario women were working 33 percent
fewer hours than in February – higher than both the national average for women (at 29 percent fewer hours) and the average for On- tario men (at 27 percent fewer hours). The breakdown by hourly wage was per- haps the most shocking of all. Over half of Ontarians earning $17 an hour or less (52 percent) were laid off or lost the majority of their hours between February and May. This compares to a loss of only 3 percent of jobs or hours cut among the richest 25 percent of workers making more than $35 an hour. By year end, female workers in Ontario
were working roughly 8 percent fewer hours, in the aggregate, than before the pandemic, while the December 2020 employment rate (54.5 percent) was 2.8 percentage points below the rate posted in February 2020, the same level of women’s employment as in the late 1990s. It fell again sharply in Janu- ary to 53.3 percent, rebounding in February and March, then dropping again in April as the second and third waves of community infection precipitated new rounds of eco- nomic closures.
THE RECOVERY IS PROVING TO BE AS UNEQUAL AS THE DOWNTURN
The recovery is proving to be as unequal as the downturn. Some groups of workers re- couped their employment losses quite quick- ly, but those working in low-wage, front-
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