We are now living with COVID-19 for almost two years. Lockdowns are no longer a novelty, and any assumptions we may have had about how the global pandemic would affect women, minorities, people of colour and the LGBTQ community requires to think again.
The pandemic far from being a great equalizer has pushed women not only out of the workplace but is also impacting them more significantly. As noted in the World Economic Forum’s report Women in the Workplace 2020, at the end of 2020, millions of women were considering leaving the workforce for good.
“1 in 4 women is contemplating what many would have considered unthinkable less than a year ago: downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce. This is a critical moment for corporate world. Companies risk losing women in leadership—and future women leaders—and unwinding years of painstaking progress toward gender diversity.”
Elsewhere, a UK report found that mothers were 1.5 times more likely than fathers to have either lost their job or quit since the lockdown started. Minorities and women of color are even more negatively impacted. The report states that “compared with women overall, Latinas are more likely to worry about layoffs and furloughs. And LGBTQ+ women are almost twice as likely as employees overall to cite mental health as one of their biggest challenges during Covid-19.”
WATCH this insightful Forum to learn about how you can improve on D&I conversations, with particular focus on:
– Why Pay Equity is Imperative to Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
– How the measurement of pay can help to ensure we move towards actual pay equity
– How do we ensure our D,I,&B program is heard and felt when people are working from anywhere or remotely?
… and many more
