Ultimately, COVID-19 could deliver a major blow to women’s careers, which tend to take a backseat when duty calls at home, experts note.
If there’s one thing disruptions caused by the pandemic have revealed, it’s how stubborn traditional gender roles and pay disparities can be, The Wall Street Journal reports. Without schools or caregivers to rely on, some Baton Rouge women are making the difficult choice to leave the workforce or cut back their hours, despite the prospect of long-term damage to their finances and careers.
It’s happening as Baton Rouge’s public and private school districts are determining whether to reopen schools in just a few weeks. East Baton Rouge Parish Schools is expected to return with a hybrid of remote and in-person learning, meaning students will attend school just two days a week and take classes virtually on Wednesdays, a move that will leave buildings at 50% capacity in an effort to comply with Louisiana’s Phase II guidelines.
Throughout the nine-parish Capital Region, working parents and business owners worry that, as their workplaces reopen, a lack of access to full-time, reliable childcare will keep their employees from fully reengaging in the workforce, says Liz Smith, senior vice president of economic competitiveness at the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. But it’s particularly worrisome for working women—including Smith, who has a 4-year-old son.
“We’ve seen past studies that have said women bear the brunt of childcare, and that it’s more likely to impact their careers than their male spouses,” Smith says. “We’ve seen studies showing how working parents without access to reliable childcare are more likely to skip work, refuse promotions and be absent or tardy, all of which is going to have a huge impact on their careers.”
Smith, who has been tracking the issue for BRAC, says access to childcare is consistently identified as local businesspeople’s top barrier to recovery from COVID-19; approximately 40% of Baton Rouge households have a child under the age of 10, according to a recent BRAC survey, all of whom will need care in some form.
Historically, employers have regarded child care and eldercare as issues for families to manage on their own, WSJ reports, and, in recent years, many child care benefits have stalled or shrunk, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
Local employers are trying to come up with innovative approaches to helping to connect their workers with child care options for at least three days a week, says Smith, though she hasn’t seen a specific model proposed yet.
There’s already some evidence that women are leaving the workforce at a slightly higher rate than men. Federal data show that, in March, 57.3% of U.S. women were either working or looking for work, which fell to 56.1% in June (-2.1%). Meanwhile, male labor-force participation dropped 1.9% in that period, from 68.5% to 67.2%.
These U.S. numbers may be fluid, given that households are still awaiting clarity on school and care situations, and no gender breakdown of employment in Louisiana or the Baton Rouge metro area is currently available. Still, Smith is keeping an eye out for the numbers, which she’s worried about as local businesswomen face a “double-whammy” throughout the pandemic.
“Child care tends to be an industry headed by women, so the economic impact on women can be viewed not only from a working mom’s perspective, but also from that of an industry that’s suffering dramatically because of stay-at-home orders, health care concerns and consumer confidence,” Smith says. “Women also tend to be more prevalent employees in other industries that have been the hardest hit by this, like hospitality.”
A recent BRAC survey found that most childcare and daycare providers in the area plan to reopen, but most couldn’t say when because of uncertainties surrounding the state’s next phase of reopening the economy.
Some women in the child care industry can also find themselves in a practical dilemma: Receiving full unemployment insurance benefits, which amount to an annual salary of $44,000, can present many day care employees—who, on average, earn some $9 an hour—with a disincentive to return to work in the short-term, says Smith, which could have longer-term ramifications.
For instance, people who drop out of the labor force for an extended period not only miss out on pay, but they also often fall behind on raises that come from longer tenure and employer contributions to retirement accounts.
Still, the shaky state of child care accessibility remains the primary threat to women’s careers. In the coming months, Smith says she’s interested to see if there’s a market-based solution, such as whether a daycare provider steps in and partners with different companies.
“Summer camps have been operating all over the Capital Region throughout the stay-at-home order, and fortunately, we haven’t had an outbreak at one in Louisiana,” she says. “Maybe a provider will say, ‘Here’s what we can offer to keep kids learning.”
Read The Wall Street Journal story here, and see the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s hub for coronavirus recovery here.Â
