How Can CEOs Protect Gender Progress In The Workplace From Slidinig Backwards?

By almost every measure, women are being disproportionate ly impacted by the global pandemic – how can CEOs protect gender progress in the workplace from slidinig backwards?

- Lisa Smyth

The British billionaire Sir Philip Green, Chair of the retail conglomerate that includes Topshop and Miss Selfridge, once said that, “It’s all about quality of life and finding a happy balance between work and friends and family.” Clearly, the knighted businessman couldn’t have predicted just how much a global pandemic would throw any notion of work–life balance completely out of the locked-down window.

While men and women around the world have experienced significant repercussions of the pandemic, the research is clear that women are bearing the brunt of the impact. A McKinsey & Company report from July 2020 found that across the US and India, female job loss rates due to COVID-19 are 1.8 times higher than male job loss rates.

Unlike previous recessions where predominately male industries, such as manufacturing, were the hardest hit, this crisis has shut down sectors that are highly feminised, including retail, accommodation, hospitality, arts and recreation, and beauty and hair services.

“COVID-19 has hit women particularly hard in terms of job losses, increased care responsibilities at home, and heavy representation among low-wage workers on the front lines,” says Kristina Durante, Research Director for the Center for Women in Business at Rutgers Business School in the US.

“In our survey from May 2020, men reported their contribution to unpaid household labour during the pandemic to be 48 per cent of all the work and women reported their contribution to be 66 per cent.”