The She-Covery Project Looks At The Struggles Women Face Amid COVID-19

Thursday, 10 September 2020 08:00

UPDATE: A post-mortem exam was completed on September 9th. The Huron County Major Crime Unit and the Traffic Incident Management and Enforcement Team continue to investigate and the Ministry of Labour has been notified to help with this investigation.

WOODSTOCK - The Woodstock District Chamber of Commerce and Ontario Chamber of Commerce has released a new report highlighting the struggles women have faced during the pandemic.

The She-Covery Project: Confronting the Gendered Economic Impacts of COVID-19 in Ontario highlights how women have had to take on a bigger role at home during COVID-19. The policy brief lays out a path to Ontario’s economic recovery offering practical recommendations to confront both immediate and longer-term challenges faced by women.

President of the Board of Directors for the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce Allison Henkell says the economic impacts of the pandemic were direct and immediate for women in Ontario.

“Temporary business shutdowns during the state of emergency most severely affected sectors that predominantly employ women. Restrictions on schools and paid child care facilities have shifted additional hours of unpaid family care onto parents, and this work has largely been taken up by mothers.”

Henkell says the report shows that mothers have really had to step up to the plate during the pandemic.

"I think we have come a long way with sharing a lot of the roles and responsibilities of parenthood, but study after study show that women still take on more of the role with parenting. In this case when school wasn't an option and daycare was limited, parents had a tough decision to make on who was going to look after the children and that tended to fall more onto the women."

Henkell says a lot of women had to put their career on hold to look after children during the pandemic. Many had to do the double whammy of watching the kids at home, while also trying to keep their job, which is extremely hard. Some of the hardest hit industries by COVID-19 are the largest employers of women.

Major takeaways from the report include:

- Leadership and accountability begin with a commitment from stakeholders to set collective targets, reward diversity, include women in decision-making bodies, and apply a gender and diversity lens to their strategies, policies, and programs for recovery.

- Child care requires a short-term strategy to weather the pandemic and longer-term, system-wide reforms to improve accessibility and affordability.

- Workforce development initiatives should focus on defining critical skills, accelerating women’s reskilling, and ensuring their skills are utilized – with a focus on increasing their participation in skilled trade, technology, and engineering roles in fast-growing sectors.

- Entrepreneurship should be understood as a pathway to economic growth, and an inclusive ecosystem is critical to supporting women entrepreneurs.

- Flexible work arrangements are one way to level the playing field for women and improve organizational outcomes.

You can read the full report here.