Mothers almost 50% more likely to have lost their jobs than fathers during pandemic.

[Theluggage15]

Depressing but not surprising. A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that mothers are almost 50 per cent more likely to have lost their jobs than fathers during the coronavirus pandemic - leading to concerns of potential "lasting harm" to mothers careers.

Doesn’t surprise me at all.

Do you think perhaps it's related to: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52808930

Couldn't be less shocked.

I’d like to say I’m surprised but sadly I’m not. The pandemic will set women back and give men even more advantage.

Yes indeed. But then it could be worse.
Fathers almost 100% more likely to have lost their livess than mothers during pandemic.
In England and Wales, for example, male social care workers are dying from COVID-19 at a rate of 23.4 deaths per 100,000, compared to a rate of 9.6 for their female peers so those men won't have even more of an advantage.

I think part of the reason is that women are over represented in jobs like retail, office work, hairdressing etc. There aren't many jobs in which the number of male and female employees are equal so we should not be surprised that more women have lost their jobs - except in areas such as supermarket or care work.

That report MrAlyhakansMassiveYacht flagged is also important. There have been so many threads here about women's experiences of trying to work at home and do home schooling and housework that I was not surprised to hear it.

When you factor in Childrenofthestones point about mortality among working age adults, it looks like we are getting some very clear examples where we have very strong differences by sex.

That figure will increase hugely when furlough ends and schools all over the UK go back part time after summer. 25% of all households with children are single parent households, 90% are headed by women. It's highly likely I will have to give up my job as I can't work from home and I can't care for and educate children whilst at work. I have just written to my msp about this.

Angered but not surprised.

I just feel that in a few weeks we’ve gone back so far regarding women’s roles and yes the virus has had a terrible impact on men in respect of serious illnesses and death. It’s just a disaster all round.

I'm a single parent with a less common female job role and i am paranoid (as being the only one on my team) that as i am obviously less able to contribute than the others. I have purposefully tried to work, rather than effectively be furloughed, but now the others on the team are starting to gather pace with their input/contributions whereas I am still in the position of full time carer/homeschooler to primary school children.

I think there's a lot of us feeling that, TheNortherner .

I'm aware of the fact that when lockdown ends, and the financial shit hits the fan, and my company makes the inevitable layoffs, my performance WFH is going to look really, really shit compared to others on my team because of single parenthood and home schooling.

I wasn't initially put on furlough but was then put on about 6 weeks later as I was not being productive from home. My work was then given to the male colleagues. The reason I wasn't productive was because I couldn't do childcare of a toddler as a single mum and work. Redundancies will be made shortly and I suspect I will be in the firing line because of this.

This town is full of beauticians and hairdressers and was talking to two who said they'll be so busy when they open but are so close to closing. It's all so sad

I lost my job and when we talked about as a family we decided I shouldn’t look for something else as schools didn’t go back and we now have the 11 week summer holiday to cover. I hadn’t worked in 5 years and had literally just got a job. My first day in the office was 16 March, next day work from home, laid off after 2 weeks. I feel like I’ll never work again. It’s totally shit.

I was just thinking about getting back to work after toddler. Hmm. No chance now.

2 degrees, lots of skills. Wasted.

@HerRoyalNotness

It is pants for you, but take heart from the fact that someone did believe in you to give you a job after a 5 year absence and it sounds like (and i mean no disrespect) your world wouldnt implode without your wage.

No it won’t implode yet, but we live month to month so hoped that we could use my wage to fix some broken windows, replace the fridge, put some aside for health copays and maybe take a holiday next year.

Not surprised. And very much agree that a slow phased reopening of schools is going to massively disproportionately affect working women.

^The most common sectors of employment for women in the UK are health and social
work (accounting for 21% of all jobs held by women at September 2019), the wholesale
and retail trade (14%) and education (12%). 79% of jobs in the health and social work
sector and 70% of jobs in education are held by women.^
Given most of these are lower paid industries, many households will have sacrificed their roles over higher earnings of partners.
They're more likely to be covering the childcare.
The absolute lack of many retails jobs stands to reason why they've been hit there too. Likewise just over half of all (56%) people working in hospitality are women and given that industry has crashed and burned again its not a surprise.

It seems as though nursing and teaching women are the clear "winners".

I wonder if part time work is a factor. There are quite a few married women who do part time work so they can also cover things like after school childcare and other things that need doing in a family. These are jobs that may be more likely to be cut, but also in a family if there has to be a choice, clearly the full time position is the one that will keep working.

I worry about people getting by and businesses closing - I think these are things that government needs to be looking at preventing as much as possible. I don't consider at home work in itself to be "going back" however, I think it's something society would be better off to pay more attention to.

I don't consider at home work in itself to be "going back" however, I think it's something society would be better off to pay more attention to.

Definitely agree Goosefoot but I think that even when the schools go back, we need to make sure women are not the ones sitting at the kitchen table and doing the school run while men sit in the study. I also think there are plus points to being out of the home. As well as the chance to learn from colleagues and work collaboratively in the workplace, I have noticed how much many women really love their alone time when they commute to work.

The difference in attitude to

1. women doing the work of maintaining the human race and
2. men associated with the work of killing those humans who might be a threat.

I'm thinking of US military Reservists who have to "report for duty" (note: not "take time off" or "be furloughed") for two or more weeks a year.

Family care, at least when women do it, is just this huge drag on the company which women really should be figuring out how to stop doing.

Military service: admirable. Laws to prevent companies from dinging, in any way, the workers who "serve." Etc etc etc

And yet one of the repeat stories out of lockdown was the mindboggled amazement from men trying to do the right thing. Taking care of toddlers takes skill, perseverance, and patience! Home schooling is next to impossible! How do teachers do it??

But, after that brief flare of recognition, we seem to be sinking right back into free-riding on women's work, while men publish more papers, get more promotions, get less laid off, and get more raises.

Funny how that works. By which I mean not funny.

Very much not surprised.

It happens in every downturn/ and war. Women are expected to get stuck in when needed/ times are good, and step back when jobs are in shorter supply.

Both world wars same story, also financial crisis. Austerity policy. Women bear the brunt every time.

Would this not be something a union, like for example the GMB, might want to take an interest in supporting workers...

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