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Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation (2021)

Chapter: Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation

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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated recession have significantly affected women’s workforce participation. These impacts have varied from job loss to additional caregiving responsibilities. Black and Hispanic women have been particularly affected, bringing into sharp relief historical gender and racial inequities in the labor market. In order to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession on women’s employment, state and local decision makers can use available federal funds to mitigate those impacts while also laying the foundation for longer-term solutions.

This rapid expert consultation identifies strategies that state and local decision makers can use to assist in short-term recovery efforts for women whose employment status and work experiences have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes strategies both for supporting caregiving responsibilities and career development. Box 1 summarizes these strategies.

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic and the mitigation measures enacted to contain it have significantly damaged the economy and the labor market (Albanesi, 2021). The pandemic led to closures of companies, small businesses, schools, and childcare centers, which in turn resulted in job losses and additional caregiving responsibilities for many women (Collins et al., 2020; Goldin, 2021). Such impacts had particularly significant effects on women, with mothers, Black and Hispanic women, low-income workers, non–college-educated workers, and those in service occupations being most affected (Albanesi, 2021; Chetty et al., 2020; Goldin, 2021).

The federal government has provided some funds to states and localities through the American Rescue Plan1 and the CARES Act—including unemployment compensation, economic impact payments, a child tax credit, a small business tax credit, emergency capital investment, and paycheck protection loans—to support workers dealing with the economic effects of the pandemic. These funds present opportunities for state and local decision makers to take short-term actions to support recovery and employment for women, who made up 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force2 prior to the onset of the pandemic (Goldin, 2021).

While long-term solutions that address systemic and institutional gender and racial inequities in the labor market are needed, this rapid expert consultation focuses specifically on short-term solutions for mitigating the harms due to the pandemic. It identifies actionable guidance that state and local government decision makers can use to assist in short-term recovery efforts for women whose employment status and work experiences have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic3—an important first step in dealing with COVID-19’s impacts on working women. The strategies presented may also offer pathways for mitigating any potential long-term effects of the pandemic and readying support systems for future pandemics or other disruptive events. Note further that while this rapid expert consultation is oriented primarily to public-sector decision makers, choices made with respect to recovery efforts by leaders in the private and philanthropic sectors, such as small business employers or postsecondary education providers, following similar principles could contribute synergistically to addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s employment. In addition, mitigating the pandemic’s impacts

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1 The bill provides $350 billion in aid to state and local governments. See https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/coronavirus.

2 Moreover, in 2018 women accounted for the majority of workers in management, professional, and related occupations (52 %); financial activities (53 %); education and health services (74 %); leisure and hospitality (52 %); and other services (54 %).

3 The full statement of task for this rapid expert consultation is as follows: “The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will produce a rapid expert consultation that discusses guidance for state and local decision-makers seeking to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in the workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected women’s experiences in the workforce, with disproportionate consequences for BIPOC women and low-wage earners. The pandemic led to the temporary closure of some industries with predominantly female workforces resulting in reduction of work hours or leaving the workforce. Alternatively, female workers deemed essential workers and those with caregiving responsibilities faced burdens of too much work, due to school closures and expanded caregiving responsibilities, adding to the overall burden absorbed by many women. Drawing on social, behavioral, and economic sciences this document will identify actionable guidance that state and local government decision-makers can use to assist in short-term recovery efforts for women whose employment status and work experiences were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This document will be designed to be of practical use to decision makers, but will not recommend specific actions or include other recommendations. It will be reviewed in accordance with institutional guidelines.”

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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will also require containing the virus and ensuring that workplaces are safe by reducing the health risks of work, especially as new variants take hold and vaccinations lag.

THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT

Unlike previous recessions, the recession resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally affected the employment of women more than that of men (Albanesi and Kim, 2021). In addition, the excess burden on mothers has been greater than that on custodial fathers, and Black non–college graduates have been affected more than their White counterparts (Goldin, 2021).

Statistics show that over the course of the pandemic recession, 2.5 million women left the job market, compared with 1.8 million men (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021).4 Data from the Current Population Survey reveal that women’s labor force participation from January 2020 to January 2021 declined by 1.8 percent, halting any gains made prior to the pandemic and underscoring chronic issues with female labor force participation (Goldin, 2021).5

These pandemic effects have been felt disproportionately by Black and Hispanic women compared with their White counterparts. According to Goldin (2021, p. 13), “Black women without a college degree have had larger decreases in their employment rates than Black men and non-Black women with comparable levels of schooling.” Unemployment rates for Black and Hispanic women in February 2021 remained high: for Black women, 8.9 percent and for Hispanic women, 8.5 percent, while the rates for White and Asian women were 4.7 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively (Kochhar and Bennett, 2021).

The COVID-19 pandemic also had devastating effects on jobs in the service and care sectors, in which Black and Hispanic women are overrepresented. The majority of all the jobs lost by women during the pandemic were in leisure and hospitality (36.4 %), education and health (20.2 %), government (15.9 %), and retail (7.0 %) (Ewing-Nelson and Tucker, 2021).

For those women able to remain in the labor market, additional caregiving labor in households resulted from school and childcare closures, as well an increased need to care for older relatives.6 This increased caregiving burden reflects the tendency of women to assume a larger share of caregiving responsibilities relative to men (Goldin, 2021), and helps explain why school and childcare closures resulting from measures to contain COVID-19 led to a disproportionate decrease in the labor force participation of mothers of young children. Moreover, results of a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center show that among mothers and fathers who kept their jobs during the pandemic, mothers bore a larger share of childcare responsibility, with 36 percent saying they had a great deal of childcare responsibilities in addition to their paid employment while working from home, compared with only 16 percent of

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4 These data are based on the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics that provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, persons not in the labor force, hours of work, earnings, and other demographic and labor force characteristics.

5 In April 2021, U.S. men’s labor force participation was 1.53 percent lower than it had been before the onset of COVID-19, in February 2020 (83.6 % of men versus 84.9 %). In contrast, women’s labor force participation rate was 2.34 percent lower (71.1 % of women versus 72.8 %) (Based on U.S. Census Bureau/Bureau of Labor Statistics [see www.ipums.org]).

6 A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that during the pandemic, more than 1 in 10 women reported having new caregiving responsibilities as a result of the pandemic (Ranji, Long, and Salganicoff, 2020).

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
×

fathers (Igielnik, 2021). In another survey, conducted among working-age respondents living with their partners and currently working, 33 percent of mothers versus 11 percent of fathers reported being the sole providers of childcare (Zamarro and Prados, 2021).7

All these added responsibilities put pressure on women who were working and forced others to either leave the workforce or reduce their working hours.8 This juggling of different roles has led to increased burnout and stress and may have long-term effects on women’s career trajectories and mental health.9 In April 2020, close to half of all mothers of school-age children reported at least some symptoms of psychological distress (Zamarro and Prados, 2021).

SHORT-TERM STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING THE IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON WOMEN’S WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION

Short-term strategies can not only help mitigate the harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession with respect to women’s workforce participation, but also set the stage for more medium- and long-term equitable recovery strategies. Such short-term recovery efforts can provide a foundation for addressing barriers that have long prevented women from entering, remaining in, or reentering the workforce, including lack of childcare, lack of available jobs, lack of paid sick leave, and lack of workplace flexibility (Mason, Flyn, and Sun, 2020).

The research literature and programs currently under way in state and local jurisdictions point to a number of short-term strategies decision makers can use to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s workforce participation using existing federal pandemic relief funds. These short-term strategies will need to address both workforce participation and improvement of economic returns for women, who tend to incur greater costs in working outside the home, such as earning gaps and childcare costs, relative to men (Blau and Winkler, 2017). The connection between the economic return on work and workforce participation necessitates discussion of programs and policies focused on providing women with direct financial support as well as options for employment.

In implementing such short-term recovery strategies, decision makers will need to undertake comprehensive efforts based in gender-equitable policies. Such efforts will need to both address caregiving needs, which can broadly support caregivers and parents—some of whom are men, but the majority of whom are women—and workforce and career development needs. For example, Hawaii’s Building Bridges, Not Walking on Backs initiative centers on improving women’s lives in the state’s economic recovery from the pandemic recession (Hawaiʻi State Commission on the Status of Women, 2020). This initiative, developed by the Hawaiʻi State Commission on the Status of Women, adopts an intersectional lens, offering

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7Zamarro and Prados (2021) used the first eight waves of the new Understanding Coronavirus in America survey, administered biweekly to a nationally representative sample by the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research over a 4-month period.

8 A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 1 in 10 working mothers with children under 18 had quit a job because of COVID-19, and half of this group cited school closures as one of the reasons for quitting. About 47 percent of working mothers responding to the same survey reported taking unpaid sick leave because their child’s school or daycare center was closed. Women also reported missing work and reducing workhours because of school closures and caregiving responsibilities (Ranji, Long, and Salgnicoff, 2020).

9 In another Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 51 percent of women compared with 34 percent of men reported experiencing worrying or stress-related mental health effects as a result of the pandemic (Frederiksen et al., 2021).

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
×

recommendations not only for rectifying the gender pay gap but also for using federal loans to bolster critical social services and for addressing other issues of importance to women, such as the need for increased access to domestic abuse shelters and reproductive health care (Hawaiʻi State Commission on the Status of Women, 2020). Key actions within the initiative include:

  • explicitly addressing gender equity and reducing the gender gaps widened by the pandemic in all strategies for investments and accountability;
  • including women in all levels of consultation, decision making, and communication/outreach;
  • using disaggregated data (gender, race/ethnicity, age, zip code, and social data) to identify needs;
  • redressing critical economic inequalities to promote women’s financial independence and the redistribution of unpaid care work; and
  • eliminating the digital gender gap among low- and middle-income women and their families.

The sections below describe six short-term strategies that can help decision makers redress the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s labor force participation. The strategies are grouped into two categories: those that broadly support caregiving responsibilities, and those that specifically support women’s workforce and career development.

Supporting Caregiving Responsibilities

Provide Direct Financial Support for Women and Their Families

States can provide targeted support for those women who have lost their jobs or decreased their work hours because of increased caregiving responsibilities caused by school or childcare closures due to the pandemic. Such targeted direct financial support can help address the human costs of the pandemic recession by assisting families in meeting basic needs (Stone, 2020). For example, stimulus payments provided in 2020 were important in helping cover such basic expenses as food and housing (Perez-Lopez and Bee, 2020).10 Policy options could include providing tax credits for low-income households with children,11 extending unemployment benefits for low-income households, and providing childcare assistance. States such as Colorado, Connecticut, and Idaho, for example, have been providing monetary incentives for those who are unemployed to return to work (National Governors Association [NGA], 2021). Targeting these incentives to women who may wish to return to work could spur recovery.

Invest in the Childcare Infrastructure

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many childcare providers closed temporarily or permanently, while others were financially impacted when families were forced to opt out or stop paying (Burwick et al., 2020; Carson and Mattingly, 2020). Because the majority of the

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10 A survey in 2020 found that of the 73,472 households that responded, 80 percent used the stimulus money on food and 77.9 percent on rent, mortgage payments, and utilities (Perez-Lopez and Bee, 2020).

11 A report from the National Academies shows that tax credits are the most important programs for reducing deep poverty among children (NASEM, 2019).

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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childcare workforce comprises women, providing support to these providers and increasing spending subsidies to bolster compensation for early care educators can boost women’s workforce participation (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [NASEM], 2018) and mitigate some impacts of the pandemic recession.

Lack of access to affordable and quality childcare may also be preventing some women from reentering the workforce or searching for new jobs. Even before the pandemic, many parents were struggling with childcare responsibilities, causing job disruptions (Morrissey, 2017). While the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this challenge, state and local governments can support assistance programs in the short term to help mitigate the impacts on women’s employment. State-level programs providing supports to cover the costs of such essential services as childcare and transportation have been shown to increase the retention of workers, particularly women of color (Wilkinson and Kelly, 2018). For example, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services offered 60 days of subsidized childcare to people looking for work because of their loss of employment during the pandemic (NGA, 2021).12 Investment in childcare needs to go beyond just availability but should focus on quality and affordability as well (Morrissey, 2017).

Introduce Family-Supportive Policies

Family-supportive policies and practices can, in the short term, enable women with dependent caregiving demands, including women with childcare needs, women with school age children or women caring for older relatives, to continue or return to work. Research on the effects of access to paid family leave has shown that it reduces the number of female employees leaving their jobs in the first year after giving birth, increases household income, increases the number of hours women work, and lowers poverty rates for mothers (Baum and Ruhm, 2013; Jones and Wilcher, 2020; NASEM, 2016; Stanczyk, 2019). Using the available federal recovery funds to introduce such family-supportive policies could support affected women in the short term.

When the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) expired in December 2020, along with its mandate for employers to provide paid sick leave, some states and localities instituted their own policies. For example, Philadelphia, which prior to FFCRA’s expiration offered COVID-19–specific paid leave to cover those not eligible under that act, has since enacted COVID-19–related paid sick leave for eligible individuals working for employers with 50 or more employees (Nagele-Piazza, 2021).

In addition, the introduction of fair working schedules and flexible workplace policies can mitigate the unpredictability of work and help women either continue working or return to the workforce (Carrilo et al., 2017; Kossek and Lee, 2020). This can be of particular importance to women with school age children who were affected by school closures and undertook most supervised online schooling (Bansak and Starr, 2021). Even before the pandemic, the need for flexibility in the workplace was important in reducing the gender gap in workforce participation (Goldin, 2014). Several states and cities—including Oregon; Seattle; New York City; San Francisco; San José; and Emeryville, California—have in place such comprehensive protections as advance notice of work schedules, additional compensation for unexpected schedule changes or on-call hours, the right to accept or decline added or lengthened shifts, mandatory rest periods

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12 The program targets both men and women. It does not require an income qualification, and two-parent households are eligible as well if one parent is working.

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
×

between shifts, and the right to request scheduling accommodations (Wolfe, Jones, and Cooper, 2018). The example of Emeryville illustrates how effective such measures can be. A study of the effect of the city’s fair workweek policy on mothers of young children found that it reduced schedule unpredictability, leading to overall improved well-being and subjective reports of better sleep quality (Ananat, Gassman-Pines, and Fitz-Henley, 2019).

For those in jobs for which remote work or telework is feasible, making these work options consistently available can assist women in the workforce and spur equitable opportunities for all genders in all workplaces (NASEM, 2021). For example, increased remote work options could enable working mothers to take positions that previously required significant time away from the home (Goldin, 2021).

The introduction of family-supportive policies alone is insufficient (Allen, 2001). Policy needs to be coupled with cultivation of a work environment that supports policy implementation without fear of repercussions. Support from supervisors has been associated with less work–family conflict and can be a key element of a family-supportive culture (French et al., 2018). Providing supervisors with training on how to offer work–life support to employees is one way to foster a more family-supportive work environment (Hammer et al., 2011).

Supporting Workforce and Career Development

Invest in Workforce Development and Education Targeted at Women

To bolster recovery efforts in the short term, decision makers can invest in workforce development programs—such as courses that facilitate remote or telework by boosting computer skills—designed to assist women who want to return to work or change professions. Investing in community colleges and providing resources to women wishing to be retrained or develop new skills can also bolster women’s workforce participation. Postsecondary models in Alabama, for example, provide training and wraparound supports at community colleges in the greater Birmingham area for women pursuing in-demand jobs in health care, manufacturing, and information technology (Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham, 2019).13

Other models include “returnship” programs that assist those seeking to rejoin the workforce after some time away.14 These programs act as internships that are targeted specifically at those who have been away from their jobs, providing training to sharpen their skills and gain relevant experience (Boe, 2020). Partnerships between community colleges and companies can also be part of workforce development because they enable working women to gain additional skills while continuing to work (Turner, 2021).

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13 In support of these programs, the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham recommends actions that put women at the center of workforce development efforts. Such actions include designing and connecting women to workforce development programs that work for them and their children, engaging workforce system leadership to design programs whereby women and their families can thrive, and advocating for the integration of social services with workforce development programs.

14 An example is the Returners Program launched by HubSpot in 2019. See https://www.inhersight.com/blog/female-friendly-companies/return-to-work-programs.

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Promote Women’s Access to Traditionally Male-Dominated Jobs

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how women, particularly Black and Hispanic women, are overrepresented in low-income, undervalued, and poorly paid professions (Wong and Charles, 2020). While promoting women’s access to traditionally male-dominated jobs will require medium and long term actions, state and local decision makers can start now investing in education, apprenticeships, certification programs, marketing, and recruitment of women into jobs and sectors in which they are underrepresented. Two examples—The Chicago Women in the Trades program and New York’s Nontraditional Employment for Women program—suggest models for preparing women to enter apprenticeships in traditionally male-dominated fields.15

While traditionally male-dominated apprenticeship programs have historically seen racial disparities between Black and Latino men and White men (Kuehn, 2017; Roberts and Mayo, 2019), a program in New Orleans attempts to overcome these historical barriers for women by building the infrastructure necessary for Black and Hispanic women’s access to preapprenticeship training and trades jobs through women-focused preapprenticeship programs, employment targets with consistent oversight, and support networks of other tradeswomen (Childers et al., 2021). State and local government decision makers have the opportunity to use available pandemic recovery funds to increase women’s access to trades jobs, provide women with more information about the quality of these jobs, and increase their access to apprenticeships in which they are paid while learning their trades—all with a focus on equity and decreasing barriers to access for Black and Hispanic women (Childers et al., 2021).

The rebuilding of physical infrastructure also offers opportunities for improving women’s access to well-paying jobs. For example, a strategy that involves both supporting women who want to enter the trades through preapprenticeship and other supports and working with employers and other stakeholders to provide technical assistance and oversight has been found to increase women’s share of construction apprenticeships in Massachusetts—a share that is triple the national average (Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues, 2021). Similarly, Oregon has high rates of apprenticeship participation by women, boosted by a dedicated funding stream for support services that include childcare for apprentices, addressing one critical barrier to diversity in apprenticeships (Hegewisch, 2020).16

Other communities with preapprenticeship programs for women offer additional examples of efforts to address the lack of gender and racial diversity in trades and technical jobs (Hegewisch and Ahmed, 2019). In Mississippi, for example, the Moore Community House Women in Construction program has formed a partnership with Ingalls, a manufacturing company, to offer a bilingual nighttime preapprenticeship designed to assist Latinas in entering shipbuilding apprenticeships. In another example, the West Virginia Women Work program has placed preapprenticeship programs for women on college campuses (Hegewisch and Ahmed, 2019).

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15 See https://www.cwit.org/ and https://www.new-nyc.org.

16 Three initiatives are involved: the Oregon Highway Construction Workforce Development Program, the Pre-Apprenticeship Child Care Initiative, and the Labor Littles program (Hegewisch, 2020).

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Provide Access to Mental Health Services for Women

The well-being of many workers has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers may be suffering from depression, anxiety, and burnout. Mental health support can help employees who have suffered significant stress and disruption as a result of the pandemic and may be a tool for helping to retain women workers impacted by these mental health impacts who are considering dropping out of the labor force. The Alabama Workforce Stabilization Program, for example, provides mental health training to employers so they can identify and support employees with mental health and substance use needs.17

CONCLUSION

Federal recovery funds targeted to states and local governments provide opportunities for policy makers to take short-term actions to mitigate some of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s workforce participation. Synergistic efforts made by the private and philanthropic sectors can also bolster recovery efforts and contribute to addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s workforce participation. Such actions need to be implemented with an eye toward long-term, equitable economic recovery, addressing the inequalities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

SEAN is interested in your feedback. Was this rapid expert consultation useful? Send comments to sean@nas.edu or (202) 334-3440.

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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the sponsors of SEAN—the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Special thanks go to the members of the SEAN executive committee, who dedicated time and thought to this project: Mary T. Bassett (co-chair), Harvard University; Robert M. Groves (co-chair), Georgetown University; Dominique Brossard, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Janet Currie, Princeton University; Michael Hout, New York University; Arati Prabhakar, Actuate; Adrian Raftery, University of Washington; and Jennifer Richeson, Yale University.

We extend gratitude to the staff of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in particular to Emily P. Backes, Malvern T. Chiweshe, and Chelsea Fowler, who contributed research, editing, and writing assistance. We thank Dara Shefska, who led the communication and dissemination of the project, as well as Monica Feit, who provided helpful guidance and insights. We thank as well Bridget B. Kelly for her leadership in planning and executing the webinar, and Rona Briere for her skillful editing.

This rapid expert consultation benefited from perspectives and analysis presented at a June 2021 webinar. To inform the webinar, two white papers were commissioned by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. We thank Stephanie Albanesi (University of Pittsburg) for her paper on “The Impact of the COVID-19 Recession on the US Labor Market: Occupation, Family, and Gender” and Claudia Goldin (Harvard University) for her paper on “Assessing Five Statements about the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Women.” Thanks are also due to Kosali Simon and James Poterba for facilitating the collaboration with NBER.

To supplement their own expertise, the authors received input from several external sources, whose willingness to share their perspectives and expertise in the course of the webinar and afterwards was essential to this work. We thank Talya Bauer, Portland State University; Ron Carlee, Old Dominion University; Denella Clark, Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women; Ariane Hegewisch, Institute for Women’s Policy Research; Sondra Howell, Greater Memphis Chamber; David Lam, University of Michigan; Linda Langston, Langston Strategies Group; Stephanie Monroe, Wrenwood Group; and Jesse Wilderman, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.

We also thank the following individuals for their review of this rapid expert consultation: Kathryn A. Edwards, Rand Corporation and Pardee RAND Graduate School; Wendy J. Casper, University of Texas at Arlington; Cora Bagley Marrett, University of Wisconsin–Madison, emerita; and Sondra Howell, Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce.

Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions of this document, nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this document was overseen by Alicia L. Carriquiry, Department of Statistics, Iowa State University and Robert A. Moffitt, Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this rapid expert consultation was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authors, and this document has been reviewed and approved for release by the National Academies.

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
×

SOCIETAL EXPERTS ACTION NETWORK (SEAN) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

MARY T. BASSETT (Co-chair), Harvard University

ROBERT M. GROVES (Co-chair), Georgetown University

DOMINIQUE BROSSARD, University of Wisconsin–Madison

JANET CURRIE, Princeton University

MICHAEL HOUT, New York University

ARATI PRABHAKAR, Actuate

ADRIAN E. RAFTERY, University of Washington

JENNIFER RICHESON, Yale University

Staff:

MONICA N. FEIT, Deputy Executive Director, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and

Education

EMILY P. BACKES, Senior Program Officer

MALVERN T. CHIWESHE, Program Officer

CHELSEA FOWLER, Associate Program Officer

DARA SHEFSKA, Communications Specialist

PAMELLA ATAYI, Program Coordinator

Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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Suggested Citation:"Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Short-Term Strategies for Addressing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Workforce Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26303.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated recession have significantly affected women’s workforce participation. These impacts have varied from job loss to additional caregiving responsibilities. Black and Hispanic women have been particularly affected, bringing into sharp relief historical gender and racial inequities in the labor market. In order to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession on women's employment, state and local decision makers can use available federal funds to mitigate those impacts while also laying the foundation for longer-term solutions.

This rapid expert consultation identifies strategies that state and local decision makers can use to assist in short-term recovery efforts for women whose employment status and work experiences have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes strategies both for supporting caregiving responsibilities and career development.

This rapid expert consultation was produced through the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN), an activity of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. SEAN links researchers in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences with decision makers to respond to policy questions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. This project is affiliated with the National Academies' Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats. The white papers that informed the development of this rapid expert consultation were commissioned by the National Bureau of Economic Research with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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