"Shecession"

“Shecession” is a recently created term to capture a recent situation where women lost their jobs in greater numbers than men did as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  It is the subject of an October 2020 report entitled, “America’s Recovery from the 2020 ‘Shecession’: Building a Female Future of Childcare and Work” sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, to address the inequities experienced by women through the pandemic.

As everyone has likely experienced, the pandemic changed the way many people work. Many have lost jobs as a result of the country shutting down. The Shecession report outlines the factors contributing to the proportionately heavier loss of women’s jobs based on approximately 100 articles published over the last five (5) years or so. It points out that the Shecession is the culmination of several on-going factors that were exacerbated by the pandemic, including childcare issues, barriers to STEM education, lack of training and apprenticeships for non-traditional careers (like construction), and workplace safety.

While childcare should be viewed as a family issue, it often becomes a women’s issue, since women are placed in specific gender roles by the society at-large which believes since women are nurturers, therefore, they should be the ones solely responsible for caring for children, even when these women are not single. It can be expensive for many families, but for low-income workers it will take a greater portion out of a paycheck to seek childcare outside of the home. Moreover, the salaries paid to childcare workers are usually below a living wage so that most childcare workers who are also mothers might not even earn enough to pay for their children to attend childcare.  It’s a paradox that childcare, already seemingly too costly, also doesn’t pay well enough.

The Shecession report notes that a few cities have started to provide universal nursery school/childcare for young children. The results of these programs are that the children benefit in the short-term with better access to early education and skill building, but also in the long-term as it relates to high school completion rates, college/vocational training attendance, and maintaining jobs. The report also noted that a different dual-generation childcare and training program (for parents) has mainly helped women to learn skills and earn certificates while their children are being cared for.  In short, investments early on have the ability to provide returns many years later.

Removing barriers to STEM education is also discussed in the report, where girls in poor and under-served communities often do not have access to extra help, are met with negative attitudes about STEM not being for girls as early as elementary school and continuing through HS and college, or don’t have the resources to research colleges or apprenticeships.  These girls grow into women who end up at low-level employment - the types of jobs which are already being taken over by automation. 

For those women who have made it through college or apprenticeships, better workplace cultures are needed to reduce inappropriate comments, intimidation, and harassment. Workplace safety needs to be addressed in the fit of uniforms and equipment, clean restrooms, etc.

Moving forward, as we are hopeful that the worst of the pandemic is behind us and we recover as a country trying to put people back to work, the time to address these issues is now so that we emerge stronger as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a country with opportunities for everyone. It is imperative that we do not lose the gains that women have made over the past 50+ years in the workplace. Currently, women are more than half the US workforce ,so their education and training are vital to their own future, the future of their children, and the future of the nation as a whole.