More than four million women have left the labor market caring for their families and ensuring the safety of their loved ones throughout the pandemic. Now that COVID-19 vaccines are readily available, schools are returning to in-person teaching and many companies are phasing out their remote operations. Are all of these women returning to work?

A report of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that 41% of female workers suffered job interruptions during the pandemic. This is why many economists have started to label this recession as “secession” because more women than men have been affected. According to The New York Times, women accounted for more than 55% of the 20.5 million jobs lost in April 2020. The unemployment rate for adult women was 15% compared to 13% for adult men.

Meenakshi Rishi, professor of economics at Seattle University, commented on the uneven unemployment rate.

“The takeaway from this jobs crisis is that it remains a worse situation for women than for men, as it always is,” said Rishi.

Much of this disproportionate economic impact is due to the pandemic economy. In 2020, female-dominated jobs face the greatest number of unemployed in restaurants, retail, health care and government jobs. The closure of day care centers and the switch to distance education have added to the tension of the pandemic. For many women, lack of childcare meant disrupting or completely giving up their own work schedule.

Rishi explained that the responsibilities women take in childcare can be attributed to the gender pay gap.

“Faced with the ultimatum to provide child care, low-income family members will first quit their jobs, which have always been women. The gender pay gap we have in our economy means that women will continue to shoulder the majority of all family caregiving responsibilities, as they always have and will continue to do so in the future ”, Rishi said.

Mary Lou Moffat, director of the Albers Placement Center, described the role men can play as women step back from their jobs to care for their families during the pandemic.

“Our male counterparts [can acknowledge] that they can do it too, that the men can stay home and carry some of that burden as well, ”Moffat said.

Female-dominated jobs such as hospitality, healthcare and childcare were on the increase before the pandemic. Positions in these jobs are underpaid, so women who found themselves unemployed had fewer savings to rely on.

Stacey Jones, a senior lecturer in the Seattle U Department of Economics, spoke about the difficulty for women to juggle work and family life amid the pandemic.

“For many women in the United States, balancing work, family and personal life is an ongoing game for Jenga.–the pandemic has removed many blockages from this fragile balance, ”Jones said.

In Western countries, many countries start offering public education at age three or four, not at age five or six like the United States Data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that other countries spend an average of $ 14,000 per year to care for a toddler, while the United States only spends $ 500 . Lack of government support for paid child care decreases women’s opportunities to participate in the workforce.

Thus, the gender pay gap, lack of affordable child care services and the pandemic are some of the macroeconomic trends preventing women from remaining or re-entering the workforce.

Rishi commented on some of the long-term consequences the United States will feel if women continue to leave the workforce.

“The most important impact is that once women leave the workforce, their current income affects future income and future income affects retirement security, so women will rely on their partner for their future. provide financial security, ”Rishi said. “Without savings or benefits in their pocket, women will have a hard time finding their financial independence. “

This idea of ​​financial independence plays a role in an economic principle called bargaining power: which allows one person to exert influence over another to achieve equality.

“For a woman, her bargaining position is determined at home, and if she has no income, she no longer has that power in the household to make decisions,” said Rishi.

Job loss takes away a source of income, which would otherwise deprive women of independence. Comprehensive intervention is needed to prevent these negative economic trends from escalating further.