The numbers are crushing: by the end of April 2020, less than half of the women in Brazil were employed, the lowest level in 30 years. In Australia, around the same time, nearly a 10th of women exited the workforce, while in Japan, women lost jobs at nearly twice the rate of men. In March, US Vice-President Kamala Harris deemed the exodus a “national emergency”, with 3.5-million mothers of school-aged children in the country having left their jobs between March and April 2020.
The child-care crisis has driven a workforce gender gap for decades. The pandemic, which some economists have dubbed the US’s first female recession, has made it undeniably worse. According to Oxfam, the pandemic cost women globally at least $800bn in lost income in 2020, “equivalent to more than the combined GDP of 98 countries”.
It worked. Research found that the programme helped support an eventual bounce-back in women’s employment because it kept many day-care centres from closing permanently, preventing supply issues later on. By September 2020, women’s labour force participation in Australia had rebounded stronger than that for men.
In 2005, the country’s Liberal government had signed agreements with all 10 provinces to roll out a national child-care programme, only to fall apart a year later when the Conservative government took over.
Child-care advocates are hoping the pandemic, which battered sectors with high female employment and led millions of women to leave the workforce, will be a turning point. Congress’s nearly $2-trillion stimulus package passed in March expanded the child tax credit and appropriated $24bn to help child-care providers. For millions of American families, that expansion meant monthly payments starting in mid-July of up to $300 a child. But the boost is temporary.
Despite the growing pressure for parental benefits such as paid leave, the UK treasury did not include any financial support for child care in its most recent budget statement in March. Instead, says Christina Palmou, an economist at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the research group founded by the nation’s former prime minister, “the UK has set priorities for recovery heavily skewed towards male-dominated sectors such as construction, infrastructure and tech”.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: TheCitizen_News - 🏆 6. / 75 Read more »
Source: mailandguardian - 🏆 2. / 92 Read more »
Vending machines allow carnivores to buy meat — chop-chopHow a pandemic fix became permanent for a small business in Germany Words alone can't express how thankful I'm LindaStouffes investing with you has been a good opportunity for me and my family I just received my profit within seven days of investment.
Source: BDliveSA - 🏆 12. / 63 Read more »
KHAYA SITHOLE: Not even Covid could help fulfil Viceroy’s Capitec prophecyLike most of its peers, the bank seems to have weathered the pandemic storm 🔒 ᴍʏ sᴜᴄᴄᴇss ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴘᴛɪᴏɴ ᴍᴀʀᴋᴇᴛ ᴡᴀsɴ'ᴛ ᴘʟᴀɴɴᴇᴅ, ʙᴜᴛ ᴛᴏᴅᴀʏ ɪ'ᴍ ᴀ ᴛʀᴜᴇ ᴅᴇғɪɴɪᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ɢʀᴀᴄᴇ,, ʜᴀs ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ғᴀɪʟᴇᴅ ᴍᴇ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ ғᴇᴇʟ ғʀᴇᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ LindaStouffes
Source: BDliveSA - 🏆 12. / 63 Read more »
KHAYA SITHOLE: Not even Covid could help fulfil Viceroy’s Capitec prophecyLike most of its peers, the bank seems to have weathered the pandemic storm 🔒
Source: BDliveSA - 🏆 12. / 63 Read more »
Vending machines allow carnivores to buy meat — chop-chopHow a pandemic fix became permanent for a small business in Germany Soze ingonyama ithenge nyama, ngudoti weheadline lo Until the whole world get to know how good and generous she is I won't stop saying this because my life has taken another great shape financially, LindaStouffes
Source: BDliveSA - 🏆 12. / 63 Read more »