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Compared to men, more women in Canada have stopped working during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, women with children under the age of six have been the most likely to leave paid employment, followed by women with kids aged six to 17. This isn’t just because of entrenched beliefs that women should be primary caregivers. Women in Canada still earn less than men, especially if they are mothers – they earn 29 per cent less than men if they are between the ages of 25 and 44 and have at least one child. So for many families it comes down to a calculation. Who earns more and gets to keep working? Who lets go of their career and heads back to the kitchen?
Back in the spring of 2020, experts were warning that the impact on women was going to be severe if real measures were not introduced to support their roles as employees. Last summer, women’s participation in the labour force in Canada fell to its lowest level in three decades. How much farther down are we going to go?
This downward trend is not just concerning because of the massive setback in gender equality. It represents a significant loss to the economy overall. In recent years, earnings by women between ages of 25 and 54 accounted for 47 per cent of their family’s employment income. Without women’s income, families reduce spending and the tax base drops. In short, the economy will not recover without women’s participation.
Ford’s stay-at-home strategy might be able to slow the spread of infection. But it does nothing to slow the economic fallout of this pandemic. What is needed is forward thinking and long-term planning, such as job protections for those with caregiving roles, and leave protections designed with gender and class equality in mind so that more men are encouraged to share in caregiving.
I recognize that the safest thing to do right now is to stay home and stop the spread of COVID. But eventually this pandemic will end. Measures need to be taken now to ensure that once it is safe to return to work, women are not still stuck at home.
Anita Grace is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University and a mother of two.
