The economic difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic are impacting women more than men, and pushing back the time when economic equality between the genders can be expected.
Financy Women’s Index, which measures women’s financial progress in Australia, reveals that women’s financial progress is developing at a slower rate than any other time since 2015, and that economic equality is now likely to be set back at least 32 years.
The Index revealed a slowdown in female employment growth as full-time job numbers have increased only by 0.1 per cent to 3.35 million over the March quarter compared to the figures for male full-time employment which rose by 0.9 per cent to 5.49 million. This was contrary to the situation before the pandemic which showed greater female employment compared to men.
“For women, the risk is that some of the recent economic progress slides backwards,” Joanna Masters, Chief Economist Ernst & Young Oceania, said. “This is not because we care less about gender equality, but reflects economic consequences and perhaps diverted focus.”
“If the initial impact of COVID-19 continues to hit female employment harder than male in an economic sense, it could exacerbate gender gaps in wages and superannuation,” Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, Founder of the Financy Women’s Index, said.
The research also flagged the the risk that the gender gap in unpaid work could get worse in light of isolation, home-schooling, and fewer women in paid work.
“My primary concern is that women will get financially crushed by the collision of work and care,” AFA Inspire National Chair, Kate McCallum, said. “My research suggests that we could still be grappling with this in six months. I truly worry for the women in our world.”
Connie Mckeage, CEO of OneVue, noted that while the entire world has been affected by COVID-19, the effects differ between genders.
“This is not the time to become complacent, nor to create excuses as to why women continue to suffer financially more than men during difficult economic periods. We must look at how COVID-19 will have a material and lasting effect on women’s retirement outcomes,” Mckeage said.
The female unemployment rate rose to 5.2 per cent in March from February while the male unemployment rate remained steady at 5.3 per cent. This coincides with recent COVID-19 job statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Tax Office which show that in 14 of the 19 sectors of the economy, women took the greater hit on job losses compared to five sectors which affected men the most.
“A key concern is through the labour market, with where and how women work likely leaving them more exposed to job and income loss today, but also in years to come as economic scarring impacts opportunity,” Masters said.
And Shane Oliver, Chief Economist and Head of Investment Strategy at AMP Capital, said, “The initial impact of Coronavirus related shutdowns is likely to fall harder on women than men because the industries that will bear the brunt of the initial impact – accommodation and food services, arts and recreation and retail in particular – have a higher representation of female employees.
“This is all very different to past economic downturns which have tended to disproportionately impact males – particularly older men – harder because the economic hit was primarily to cyclical sectors like construction and manufacturing with the services sector holding up much better,” Oliver concluded.
