I’m part of the “she-cession”, now what?

February 3, 2020 was the last day that I worked. I decided to leave my senior management position after being completely burned out from 6 grueling years of start-up life. I had five (glorious) weeks to decompress before we went into shelter-in-place for Covid-19. The first week of SIP I began supporting my daughter’s remote learning in kindergarten and managing my Grandmother’s treatment for breast cancer. The second week my partner’s firm laid off and furloughed six-thousand employees and the rest took a 20% pay deduction (he was in the latter bucket). Our lives were shadows of what they once were. 

Remote school for my daughter continued the next year in pod format, with me sharing the support duties with another mother who left the workforce. The return to in-person school would come eventually, but the schedule varied and came with a plethora of rules to follow, such as who we could be around without masks and a required 7-day quarantine if we travelled more than 100 miles from our home. A child sneezing could cause the school to send them home and require a negative covid test to return. We lived on the edge everyday, not knowing what may come up, but persevered so that our daughter could continue her education and have much needed social interaction. 

I carried the constant fear of covid exposure and transmission as I shuffled between our home and that of my elderly Grandparents, who were high risk. Although I initially intended to take 3 months off of work, that timeline kept getting pushed back. The thought of going back to work under such challenging circumstances was overwhelming. My previous company was in the live events space; nothing existed for me to go back to. Not only had my priorities changed, but my career would need reimagining as well. 

According to the latest U.S. labor statistics, I am one of 1.8 million women that left the workforce during the pandemic (aka the “she-cession”) and have not re-entered. Through the American Rescue Plan Act, the federal government is offering support to eligible families by providing monthly child tax payments and investing $39 billion in childcare to help support women returning to work. It should be noted that “work” is nonspecific and there is a spectrum of types of work and industries that are more impacted than others, like retail, manufacturing and customer service positions. For my purposes, I will be taking the perspective of professional industries and generalized “office jobs” that can be performed in-person, hybrid and remote. Here are a few ideas for what organizations and the government can do to welcome women back. 

Create More Part Time or Flextime Positions 

Organizations need to look at designing more part-time and flextime roles throughout their organization and at ALL levels. A brief Google search of part-time work for moms, brings up lists of low paying clerical jobs that would not even bring them above the poverty line. A professional woman shouldn’t have to accept a lower position just because she is seeking part-time hours, nor should she be valued any less.

The 40 hour work week became law in 1940 and is overdue for revision to meet the technological advancements of the present day. Organizations can require being online during overlap times to ensure that teams are interacting, and asynchronous work can be done when it works for the individual. The emphasis should be on delivering the required work and not clocking in and out. 

Allow for Benefits for Part-Time Positions 

Most organizations offer limited or no benefits for individuals that work less than 31 hours a week. They miss out on medical benefits, 401k and matching programs, stock options and bonuses, all of which can impact the stability of an individual’s income now and in the future. The government needs to look at the potential long term issues here– overall poorer health and less financial security for retirement– and incentivize organizations to offer benefits to part-time roles. 

Allow for 401k Catch Up Contributions 

In addition to women’s loss of income during the pandemic, they also lost the ability to contribute to their 401k, benefit from tax breaks and compounded interest growth. According to Investopedia, employees can contribute up to $19,500 to their 401(k) plan for 2021 and $20,500 for 2022. Anyone age 50 or over is eligible for an additional catch-up contribution of $6,500 in 2021 and 2022. Similar to allowing those over 50 to make “catch up” payments to their 401k, legislation should be introduced to expand this benefit to women returning to the workforce.

Conclusion 

There is no one answer to address how to welcome women back to the workforce and there will be different motivations for each individual. Through a combination of intentional redesign of part-time opportunities, offering benefits to part-time employees and financial incentives, there can be expanded opportunities for women to consider. 

Sources: 

Agovino, T. (2021, September 12). Make sure women aren't left behind in return to work. SHRM. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/shrm21-shecession-women-return-to-work-pandemic.aspx 

Bolt, L. (2021, July 1). We found the best websites for Moms reentering the workforce. The Riveter. Retrieved from https://theriveter.co/voice/best-websites-for-moms-reentering-workforce/ 

Fishman Cohen , C. (2021, August 18). Return-to-work programs come of age. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2021/09/return-to-work-programs-come-of-age 

Hayes, A. (2021, December 7). 401(k) contribution limits for 2021 vs. 2022. Investopedia. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/retirement/401k-contribution-limits/#:~:text=Anyone%20age%2050%20or%20over,%246%2C500%20in%202021%20and%202022 

Hsu, A. (2021, June 4). Millions of women haven't rejoined the workforce - and may not anytime soon. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2021/06/03/1002402802/there-are-complex-forces-keeping-women-from-coming-back-to-work

Jenkins, A. W. (2021, May 12). The first-ever "she-cession". Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/well-woman/the-first-ever-she-cession-198de0b6331

Lean In & McKinsey (2021). Women are setting a new standard for leadership.. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://leanin.org/women-in-the-workplace-report-2021/women-are-setting-a-new-standard-for-leadership 

Lee, S. (2021, October 15). 40-Hour Work Week: The history and evolution. Culture Amp. Retrieved from https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/40-hour-work-week#:~:text=1926%3A%20Henry%20Ford%20popularized%20the,a%20short%20period%20of%20time.&text=They%20amended%20the%20act%20two,work%20week%20became%20U.S.%20law 

Mailer, F. (2021, June 18). How employers can support a return to work for Moms. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/child-care-early-education-by-vivvi/how-employers-can-support-a-return-to-work-for-moms-fae4c0f0f052 

Saunders , L., & Mirren Algorri. (2021, March 31). Child care workers show unions can help solve 'she-cession'. Medium. Retrieved from https://afscme.medium.com/child-care-workers-show-unions-can-help-solve-she-cession-826672c539f6

What have the women that left the workforce been doing the last 18 months?

Managing Money:

• Adjusting the budgets to one salary. Looking for ways to cut back, save and extend what you do have. 

• Worrying about protecting investments, home values, retirement in an unknown economy 

Managing Home: 

• Redecorating/reorganizing for home offices and remote school spaces

• Constantly procuring food & cooking (especially to save money)

• Constantly cleaning, because everyone is home all.of.the.time. 

• Laundry

Managing Kids:

• Supporting remote school 

• Unable to get help from family in the beginning due to fear of transmission

• Finding creative outlets for boredom and lack of social contact (aka the kids are bouncing off the wall)

• Fearing kids are not learning anything

Managing Covid:

• Managing covid safety; wear masks, wash hands, don’t touch face, etc. 

• Covid testing - procuring rapid tests and scheduling PCR tests 

• Vaccination management - when will they be available, will they be safe, who will get it first, how will we get it, will there be any symptoms, when will we get the second shot, will we have other symptoms, do we have to take time off work/school, etc, if anyone has symptoms? Then sending children back to school in-person, they become the most vulnerable and unprotected, yet around the most people. The vax becomes available for children 5-11 and the cycle begins again, only with higher anxiety because they’re your kids. Now it’s time for boosters for all the adults. 

Maintaining Your Partnership:

• Surviving under constant worry; unable to ensure that we would, in fact, be ok.

• No time alone

• Too much time together

• Loss of date night options - no babysitters, restaurants are risky. Movie theaters are closed.

What have women been missing out on? 

• Income

• Socialization 

• Intellectual challenge 

• 401K benefits 

• Contributing to savings 

• Paying down other bills 

• Respect as a professional 

• Career progression

• In-office perks, like free coffee, snacks and lunch 

• A reprieve from the house

Culture All-Star

Company: StubHub - a ticket marketplace 

*Kelly   

Behavior:

Empathize with the customer; understands the emotion connected to seeing a favorite team or artist 

Value: We are Fans First 

Behavior:

Asks questions and listens to the customer; designs new experiences and products to meet their needs

Value: We are Inventive 

Leads with positivity, boosts the morale of everyone she interacts with 

Value: Cheer and Lead 

*Will

Behavior 

When there’s a problem, Will makes it right using his best judgment. 

Value: We are Owners 

Behavior 

Even if it’s not his position or department, Will is happy to jump in and help 

Value: Put me in Coach 

Purpose: Ritual Vitamins

To improve the health of people through greater understanding of where their nutrition comes from.

Obituary: Ritual Vitamins

Ritual Vitamins, known all over the world as the vitamin company that pioneered radical  transparency in ingredients in the supplement industry, closed today. The company was built on the belief that better health begins with better ingredients, and that customers should know where their ingredients come from and why it’s there. Their leadership led to regulatory changes meeting their level of transparency for all supplements, produce and food products. 

A cultural shift towards eating local, growing food at home or in community gardens, was directly sparked by Ritual’s success. Locally grown food now accounts for 80% of American diets. National health indices improved over the four decades that Ritual operated, leading to declines in heart disease, cancer and diabetes. It will be missed. 

Where are the part-time jobs for women?

February 3, 2020 was the last day that I worked. I decided to leave my senior management position after being completely burned out from 6 grueling years of start-up life. I had five (glorious) weeks to decompress before we went into shelter-in-place for Covid-19.  The first week of SIP I began supporting my daughter’s remote learning in kindergarten and managing my Grandmother’s treatment for breast cancer. The second week my partner’s firm laid off and furloughed six-thousand employees and the rest took a 20% pay deduction (he was in the latter bucket). Our lives were shadows of what they once were. 

Remote school continued the next year in pod format, with me sharing the support duties with another mother. The return to in-person school was unknown, and although I initially intended to take 3 months off of work, that timeline kept getting pushed back. The thought of having to go back to work under these circumstances was overwhelming. My previous company was in the live events space; nothing existed for me to go back to. Not only had my priorities changed, but my career would need reimagining as well. 

According to the latest U.S. labor statistics, I am one of 1.7 million women that left the workforce and have not re-entered (npr.org). The federal government is providing child tax credits and trying to pass legislation to fund childcare in an effort to support women and families. There’s still more to do. I believe we need to look at designing more part-time roles throughout organizations and at all levels. A woman shouldn’t have to accept a lower position just because she is seeking part-time hours, nor should she be valued any less. I’d like to explore how we can challenge the culture of the 40 hr work week and decrease the barriers to re-entry for women that have left the workforce.

POV

I will be writing my Final Article from the point-of-view of a mother that left the workforce during the pandemic and is approaching re-entry into the job market with new wants and needs.