It’s Mother’s Day, and the Pandemic has Hit Moms the Hardest

Honoring your Mom means understanding her predicament:

Mother’s Day 2021 is on May 9th, and as the day approaches, I’m thinking about all the moms out there who have sacrificed so much for their children — more so than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has been hard on almost everyone. Ordinary people have lost their jobs, their savings and worst of all – their loved ones. Racialized communities and the poor have been the hardest hit, but of all the groups adversely affected by the pandemic, women, and especially mothers, have fared the worst.

Mothers are the hardest hit, during the pandemic:

In an article by BBC Worklife, the author, Christine Ro, describes how the pandemic lock-down has specifically affected the sectors that women tend to work in, and therefore it has led to more job losses among women than among men. She adds that women who are caregivers are especially affected by employment cutbacks. Mothers with young children and those without any family support have had it the worst during the pandemic, Ms. Ro writes.

Moms are used to making sacrifices, and having to give up their job or career, either because of the lockdown, or because they have to stay home to help their children with school, is just another sacrifice they willingly make. But that’s not to say that the stress doesn’t add up. I’ve heard some mothers say that they feel like they’ve lost their identity during the pandemic, because they have no job and no sense of their own purpose. Some mothers are turning to alcohol, to self-soothe.

Even career women aren’t spared:

Ms. Ro writes that even career women are not exempt from the COVID-induced stress, as their attempts to balance high-power careers and caring for their families are leading to burn-out and often, the decision to leave the workforce. And some of these women won’t be returning, either.

An article by McKinsey and Company discusses how women are “more vulnerable to COVID-19-related economic effects because of existing gender inequalities,” and it suggests that “what is good for gender equality is good for the economy, and society as well. The COVID-19 pandemic puts that truth into stark reality.”

The “she-cession” is real:

An article in the Financial Post, by Armine Yalnizyan, states that “the she-cession is real and a problem for everyone.” Ms Yalnizyan goes on to say that “there will be no recovery without a she-covery and no she-covery without childcare.”

Ms. Yalnizyan dubbed the COVID-induced recession a “she-cession” in March 2020. She described how, in Canada, “women lost 62% of the jobs” that had been shut down at the start of the pandemic, and these jobs were “almost all in the service sector.”

The lack of affordable child-care a determining factor:

She added that, now, it’s getting that much harder for women to return to the workforce, “as childcare spaces become rarer.” She described how, in September 2020, “54,000 men joined the labour market, while 57,000 women left it.” She remarked that “this is the first time in decades that we’ve seen such gendered differences.”

From the lack of available, affordable childcare and the necessity of being home with their young children; from the loss of service-sector jobs and the burn-out from trying to “do it all,” mothers are suffering disproportionately during the pandemic.

The best Mother’s Day gift – lobby the Government for more support to moms:

This Mother’s Day, instead of buying your Mom flowers or a gift she doesn’t need, consider the sacrifices she’s making, and think about lobbying your government for more support to women and to moms in particular.

Ms Yalnizian writes that “in places like Toronto,” September 2020’s “enrolment in regulated childcare was 37 per cent of pre-pandemic levels due to the reluctance of parents to expose their children to contagion and of workers to risk illness in return for getting paid less than a zookeeper.”

She adds that, “if over half our roads and bridges were at risk of collapsing, governments would have a plan. But when it comes to childcare’s role as essential social infrastructure, there’s nothing. The macroeconomic result is a stalling or even reversing recovery, as purchasing power gets pinched.”

Moms contribute greatly to the economy:

She sums up by saying that “household spending fueled 57 per cent of GDP prior to the pandemic. Households with kids are the largest block of spenders, accounting for 35.4 per cent of all households; and women contribute 42 per cent of the incomes of these households.”

She says that “only a minority of workers can work from home (39 per cent, according to Statistics Canada) and now even some of those people are starting to throw in the towel” after so many “months of juggling paid work and full-time but unpaid childcare and home-schooling. The people most likely to “quit” this untenable — but utterly fixable — situation are women.”

Mothers – the unsung heroes of the pandemic:

Mothers are the unsung heroes of the pandemic. The sacrifices they’re making go way above and beyond what is reasonable to expect. They’re suffering, and the mental and physical toll on them will remain, long after the pandemic is over.

Governments need to do something, and soon, as it is in the best interest of women — and society — to support mothers and make it possible for moms everywhere to be an integral part of the workforce, if that’s what they want and need.

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