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Colleen Zavodny tries to work from home while her daughter Sylvia, 5, takes an exercise break with her online kindergarten class, Oct. 29, at their Woodridge, Illinois home.

Brian Cassella/ Chicago Tribune/ TNS file

Pandemic recession becomes ‘shecession’ as more working moms are forced to quit jobs

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

As a social service provider, Colleen Zavodny knows how important it is to take care of her mental health, but the coronavirus pandemic has tested her like nothing else.

“I’ve had a couple nasty, ugly cries where I wonder how am I going to keep managing this,” said Zavodny, of Woodridge, Ill., who runs the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago’s rape crisis center.

Zavodny supervises e-learning for her 5-year-old daughter Silvia while working full time for the YWCA from home. She also had been working as a server at a restaurant every other weekend when her ex has custody of their daughter.

When Covid-19 restrictions banned indoor dining in March and again Oct. 23, she lost her second income, which the 38-year-old she had used to pay for day care a few days a week, something she can no longer afford.

“At the beginning of Covid, I was like, OK, go week by week. And then once e-learning started, I was like, OK, let’s just go day by day,” she said. “And there are some days where I’m like, I just have to go forward one hour at a time or one minute at a time.”

Zavodny is like millions of other working mothers whose financial security and career prospects have been upended by the virus, and experts say it could take years for women to recover. In September alone, 865,000 women left the workforce or were laid off nationwide, compared with 216,000 men, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Called the “shecession” by some economists, the coronavirus pandemic is unlike other modern recessions in that job losses are greatest among women, who dominate jobs that cannot be done remotely, like food service, retail and hospitality.

At the same time, they’re being required to do more at home. As schools and day care centers close, parents – mostly mothers – are forced to take on more responsibility, an escalation in child care needs that hasn’t happened in past recessions.

Some women in two-parent households are being forced to drop out of the workforce altogether, at least temporarily.

“The pandemic has forced millions of families to decide who scales down or drops out of the workforce for the next few months, and it’s going to be mostly women,” said Titan Alon, an economics professor at the University of California at San Diego who has researched the impact of the coronavirus on gender equality.

Early in the pandemic, moms of school-age children from early closure states were about 68% more likely to voluntarily leave their jobs than moms in states that had not yet closed, according to a study by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. Compared with dads, moms were about 50% more likely to take leave.

The situation hasn’t gotten much better.

A September survey of more than 40,000 North American workers by consulting firm McKinsey found 1 in 3 mothers has considered leaving the workforce or scaling back her career because of the pandemic. Among those considering a change, the majority cite child care as the primary reason.

“Everybody’s doing more right now. But when you already have a double shift, and then you compound that with another double shift, you really get this disparate difference for women,” said Alexis Krivkovich, managing partner at McKinsey and co-author of the report.

Women who reduce their hours or leave the workforce, whether temporarily or permanently, could lose skills, advancement opportunities, wages and benefits. Past recessions, which affected men’s employment more severely than women’s, have reduced the gender pay gap, but this recession could widen the gap again, according to Alon.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Jacqueline Thomas, a mother of two who left her communications director role at PCMA, a global events company based in Chicago. “I spent a lifetime building a career, getting a master’s degree, working toward this directorship position. When that’s taken away, or you step away from it, you lose a sense of worth.”

Her decision to leave her job in September was based primarily on the well-being of her children, one of whom has special needs, she said. Both children are in a full-time e-learning program, which Thomas oversees out of their LaPorte, Indiana, home.

Thomas, who is in her mid30s, and her husband never discussed him leaving his job because his career in the tech with a lack of women in C-suite nesses and policymakers to help industry is more stable and positions in our country.” women through the pandemic less exposed to shocks from The coronavirus’ child care by implementing flexible schedthe pandemic. Once her chil- crisis is hitting mothers at all ules, providing paid leaves of dren can transition into a stable income levels. absence and changing perforschooling situation, Thomas Alicia Atkinson, a mom mance criteria to account for wants to go back to work but of three who left her job as a changes created by the pansaid she’s worried about being 911 dispatch trainer in August demic, like adjusting delivery penalized for stepping dates on projects. away temporarily. Employers that are “I have friends that have experienced it, I “It’s heartbreaking. I spent a lifetime embracing flexible schedules for workers have family that has building a career, getting a master’s are one silver lining of experienced it. When home pulls a woman degree, working toward this the health crisis, according to Krivkovich, who away from the workforce and she comes directorship position. When that’s says the practice will largely endure in some back, it tends not to be very forgiving,” Thomas taken away, or you step away from it, form after the pandemic. Erin Killingsaid. “It’s hard to explain that gap on the resume.” you lose a sense of worth.’ sworth-Walker, mom of 5-year-old Taylor,

If women continue — Jacqueline Thomas, a mother of two who left said flexible schedulto lose their jobs, scale her communications director role a global events ing and being able to back their hours or leave company based in Chicago work from her Olympia their careers, there Fields home, along with will be consequences for the economy, businesses, and for women’s long-term financial security and wellbeing, experts say. A gap in the unemployment rates between men and women in Illinois began to grow in April and continued to increase throughout the summer. In September, the unemployment rate for Illinois women was 8.6%, compared with 7.7% for men. Between layoffs and women leaving work for caregiving, the effect on the economy is significant, said Misty Heggeness, the economist who wrote the Minneapolis Fed report. “When we have a subset of after losing her child care, worries about the challenges she’ll face when she tries to get back into the workforce after the pandemic. “There’s always the stigma of hiring people who have been out of the workforce,” said Atkinson, 39, of Hoffman Estates. “There are some times I feel really angry because this wasn’t the plan.” Atkinson says she and her wife, Laurin Atkinson, made the decision for Alicia to step back based on the best interest of their kids. The couple was bothered by the inconsistency of preschool shutdowns and reopenings, which had a negative impact on help from her mother, has been key in allowing her to keep her human resources job at Relativity, a Chicago-based software company. “Everyone is playing a role to make this possible right now. If we lose any of those pieces – the company support, the family support, then it will all go by the wayside,” she said. Researchers see another bright spot emerging. In about 10% of American families, men are becoming the main child care provider because of the pandemic, according to Alon, who says these families, though a small contingent, could accelerate a shift in traditional the population that isn’t fully their 4-year-old twin daughters gender roles. engaged at their maximum and 3-year-old son, Alicia said. When Tiffany and Troy Caspotential in the formal labor When deciding which tleberry sat down to decide market, we’re basically giving up spouse’s career takes prece- who would step back to care for a proportion of our GDP and eco- dence, many parents perform a their 5-year-old when schools nomic growth,” Heggeness said. straightforward calculus: The closed in the spring, the couple

Erin Killingsworth-Walker, person earning the most, or with decided it would be Troy, 46, who right, with husband Timothy the best career prospects, keeps gave up his nursing job while Walker Jr. and their daughter working, Alon said. For most het- Tiffany continued working as Taylor, 5, at home in Olympia erosexual couples, the husband a nursing director at the UniFields on Oct. 5, 2020. outearns the wife. versity of Illinois Hospital and

Employers stand to lose as The disparity is sometimes pursuing her doctoral degree in well, particularly those compa- the result of gender inequities nurse practice. nies seeking to diversify their baked into the system, accord- While it didn’t come to that – management ranks and create ing to Pam Cohen, president of Tiffany’s sister was able to help advancement opportunities, said WerkLabs, the analytics divi- during the day – the couple Maria Doughty, president and sion of the Chicago-based Mom decided Troy will become CEO of the Chicago Network, an Project, which connects women the primary child care proorganization of Chicago profes- and employers through its vider in the home should sional female leaders. digital marketplace. anything change.

“We’re going see a huge shift “It’s kind of a Catch-22,” “I’m a very involved person, in the number of women in the Cohen said. “The one who has whether in our community, on line of succession for C-suite the more powerful role to begin professional boards, and other roles step out because of the with is likely going to get the things I serve on. To come out Covid,” said Doughty. “If women default of, well, we need to bow of the workforce and be home at the mid-management level to my job, rather than yours. And would cost me a great deal emostep away, they won’t be consid- so it’s one of these self-fulfilling tionally,” Tiffany Castleberry ered for higher-level positions, prophecies, and it’s a bad cycle.” said. “I’m not a stay-at-home and we already have a problem Experts are calling on busi- mom. I wouldn’t like that.”