Women have been dealt a heavy hand during the pandemic, but mothers of color are bearing the brunt of the impact when it comes to balancing their careers with family life.
More than 2.1 million women have left the workforce completely since February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of those women, 22% were Black mothers, 20% were Asian mothers and 19% were Hispanic mothers, according to a study by WerkLabs and The Mom Project, a digital career community.
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While more than half of mothers who left the workplace during COVID were let go or furloughed, 33% chose to leave and 18% took a temporary leave, the study found. The inability to work remotely and the lack of workplace flexibility were major drivers forcing women to choose between their careers and home responsibilities.
“Moms are currently in a delicate balancing act and many are unfortunately going to topple over due to the unrelenting pressures of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic,” Dr. Pam Cohen, president of WerkLabs, said in a release. “Women of color are drowning in an attempt to maintain both careers and family.”
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More than 80% of the women surveyed felt overwhelmed with work and home responsibilities, WerkLabs found. Since the pandemic, working mothers are now spending 65 hours per week on child care and household duties — 15 hours more per week than fathers, according to a survey by the Boston Consulting Group.
Black and LatinX mothers had less support both in and out of the office: the WerkLabs study found that two times as many Black mothers than white or Asian moms were doing more than 90% of the housework. More Black and LatinX mothers also reported feeling that their workplace was testing them and assumed they’d have more time to work while logging in remotely.
Without proper employer-intervention, the long and short-term implications of women stepping away from their careers will be staggering, says Jennifer Reynolds, a former investment banker and CEO of Toronto Finance International. The WerkLabs study found that 72% of mothers who had left the workplace were not able to spend time looking for other career opportunities or advance their skills.
“The longer women are out of the workforce, the harder it is to actually get back in,” Reynolds says. “Every month and year you're out of the workforce contributes to increasing the wage gap between others who have been in the workforce.”
To support mothers of color, the Mom Project launched its RISE Initiative, which provides scholarships toward technology and upskilling certificates. The initiative hopes to boost earning potential and keep women in step with their career trajectories.
“Women are often in jobs that aren’t as high paying as men, so we need to think about why that is,” Reynolds says. “Getting women into STEM-type careers, like technology, engineering and math, lead to jobs which are higher paying.”
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Additionally, employers need to promote a culture of openness when it comes to the stressors of COVID-19. For women of color, addressing diversity and inclusion, child care concerns and other unique challenges is a critical piece to creating an environment that allows them to bring their full selves to work.
“Sometimes we have this view that we're all in the same storm, so everyone should have the same level of resources. Well, we all are in the same storm, but we don't have the same boat,” says Sarah Greenberg, lead coach at BetterUp, a corporate coaching platform. “One thing employers can start with is being aware of the differential load that certain groups are taking on.”
