Editor’s note: It’s Women’s History Month, and to mark International Women’s Day, Peter Bothum asked University of Delaware professors “for their thoughts on the hurdles women faced during the pandemic and what can be done now that we seem to be moving on to live in the ‘new normal.’” This series was first published by UDaily.
By Alison Parker
Women of color have paid the highest price for the gender inequity that exists around the world, in the way that certain jobs are valued and how people are paid.
What we saw during the pandemic was that the parenting burden is still, by default, considered to be something that women had to deal with, and they had to adjust to the lack of child care, lack of day care, lack of schools being open, etc. Many women had to lose their jobs and pull themselves out of the job market. Black women who work as day care workers, nurses, nannies, nursing aides were under incredible stress. And they were put in a worse position because, in some cases, they lost those jobs or did not have the resources to take care of their own children in order to be able to take care of other people’s children or other people’s family members.
There’s this incredible disparity in the system that made Black women and other women of color the most likely to suffer from the economic effects of the pandemic.
If we had more gender parity in pay and if jobs that are currently considered at the bottom of the totem pole in terms of work and value — like the day care, like schoolteachers — if those jobs could be paid what people are really putting in, in terms of the value that they offer for the community, we would see more empowered women.
Alison Parker is chair and Richards Professor of American history, co-chair of the University of Delaware’s Anti-racism Initiative and is involved in women and gender studies.
Office of work-life could help alleviate stress
By Amanda Bullough
One idea for addressing gender issues in the workplace that I’ve particularly loved lately is creating and funding a full-time director or office of work-life (or work-life resource center) with dedicated staff to provide and maintain resources.
Creating something like this means funding staff who collect and maintain resources that are helpful to employees outside of work. The pandemic hit women particularly hard because women still manage the lion’s share of caregiving, which means challenges like kids in virtual school and sick and isolated elder parents.
Even in non-pandemic times, these are sources of stress, and time and attention suckers, yet women still do phenomenal work for their employers.
Imagine how much an employer could help alleviate some of this by having somewhere employees can go when they need a recommendation for child care, elder care, housing, well-being and so on.
Amanda Bullough is an associate professor of management and global leadership at the University of Delaware and the co-founder of and a research director for UD’s Women’s Leadership Initiative.
