April 1 marks the end of 2021 Women’s History Month. During the past month, we have celebrated the sometimes-overlooked significant contributions of women in every segment of our society and reflected on the women who have contributed so much to our culture and development as a nation.
In 2021, women have a lot to celebrate. Probably most historic, but long overdue, is that the country just elected its first woman vice president. We have increased the number of woman CEOs of Fortune 500 companies by 17 since 2018, and we just need to look at our MGB community to see the impact of women in health care. Women like MGB President and CEO Anne Klibanski, MGH Senior Vice President Ann Prestipino, and Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky (who also is a professor of medicine at MGH) have been the leaders through the challenges of this pandemic, and their leadership has provided us with the exceptional direction to weather this storm.
While all have faced challenges over the last year, women have been disproportionally affected during this pandemic, a fact that is not visible to many. The downturn in the economy due to the pandemic has resulted in significant job loss for women. Since February of 2020, women accounted for 55% of the overall job loss. Women of color have felt the most significant impact of these changes in the economy. The unemployment rate for men in December of 2020 was 6.4%, while black women had an unemployment rate of 8.4%, and Latinas had an unemployment rate of 9.1%.
One need only look at the role of women in society to know why we see this picture. Women make up the majority of the jobs in the hospitality and leisure sector and in the retail trades, the hardest-hit segments during the pandemic. In the United States, women have responsibility for the majority of childcare and family caregiving. In the pandemic, women left the workforce to care for ailing family members and children that were not in school or daycare. This inequity was highlighted by our own Dr. Tiffany Hogan and her colleagues in an article that describes the impact of the pandemic on women in academia in terms of their productivity and their ability to serve on committees. Much of this is related to the disproportionate responsibility for household chores and childcare that women assume. Will the number of women in the workforce come back post pandemic? There are questions about whether this will happen and when women will return to full employment.
There are so many barriers to women having productive and impactful roles in the workforce. As a country, we don’t have an effective system of universal, affordable childcare that families can rely on. This means that when a child needs care, it’s still woman who most often will be impacted. While we have come far on the issue of pay equity, women still make just 82.3 cents for every dollar men make for the same level of work. That means women are paid 17.7% less than men, earning $10,157 on average per year less than men for the same work. And many employers still do not provide the flexibility needed to allow families to address their childrearing and family caregiving needs.
This inequity is seen in all aspects of our society. As a women’s basketball fan, I was struck by the recent revelations that the woman playing in the NCAA’s March Madness tournament have few resources compared to their male counterparts. The women had inferior workout space, and instead of being tested for COVID with the PCR test, the gold standard for surveillance testing, they had daily antigen tests which are less reliable.
The issue of equity for women is particularly relevant for the IHP. The professions that make up our academic programs are largely populated by women, some as high as 95%. Overall, 84% of our students and faculty are women.
What can we do to support equity issues for women? As a country, we can support those actions that provide the necessary safety nets for women as they execute their role in society. I support the extension of the child tax credit that was included in the American Rescue Plan, as a way to help low- and middle-income families with the overwhelming cost of childcare. I support more investments in the availability of childcare for young children and after-school and summer programs for school-aged children. We need to continue to address issues of pay equity for women and allow for flexibility when needed in the workplace.
As I think about all the incredible women who were honored last month for their many contributions to health care, racial equity, advances in science, and evolving our culture toward inclusion, I know we have come a long way, but I also know we have much further to go. I invite you to join me in working to create a society where gender equity is no longer an issue to be addressed.