motherhood, work, and the pandemic
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I see so many articles out there asking the same question: “Is the pandemic tougher on women, especially working moms?” The answer: A resounding YES. In point of fact, it really sucks.
I hope to write a follow up on this blog and get some quotes and feedback from other moms but for now, this is my story. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I’m disabled. Not a little disabled, severely disabled. I broke my back twenty years ago in a car accident and use a wheelchair to move through life. Because of my injury I am at high risk due to COVID-19, so I’ve basically been homebound since March 2020.
There were so many unknowns about COVID that we have kept our then five, now six year old home with us. He is still tackling school remotely 5 days a week. My husband and I are both working remotely as well, though he goes into the office for coverage occasionally. It’s important to say at this point, I’m one of those lucky mothers that has a supportive spouse who is my equal partner in helping remote school our little guy.
As I discussed in “keto sucks. why I love keto”, I’ve been working a steady pace of hours, hitting 70 hours a week at the beginning of the pandemic while trying to help small businesses survive.
The Bad
Certainly, we are heartbroken for our pickle to be learning this way. He is an only child that has always thrived on human interaction. Also for a six year old to manage all his studies remotely has been a Herculean effort. His school and teachers have been outstanding, but of course your kid behaves differently (better) in school surrounded by teachers and peers that keep behavior in check. All three of us have had our moments (meltdowns) about the load we’re carrying. Our son has been blessedly resilient and understanding about having to be at home for school, while letting mom and dad work. Let’s be honest though, my husband and I are splitting another full-time job in schooling our son, who is really feeling the impact of our 11 months of isolation.
The Good
Pre-pandemic I was getting up at 5am to throw myself out the door at 6am to sit in insane traffic to get to work at 7am, to power through the day to leave at 4pm to fight traffic and try to make it to my son’s after school program by 5pm (ish) to roll into the driveway at home by 6pm.
Never would I ever have been able to spend this much time with my child pre-pandemic. I love seeing him so much during the day and being more actively involved in his school days. I will not forget that positive part of the pandemic.
I love remote work because I can get up early, work out, and hit email before anyone is even up yet, in my house or otherwise. I find myself even more productive because most of the meetings that could have been emails are now blessedly happening by email. Huzzah! Meetings also start and end on time, a novelty!
The Kickass!
As I also mentioned in “keto sucks. why I love keto”, I have been working hard to ensure that small businesses have the tools and the funds they need to hopefully survive the pandemic. Thus far, my little group has pushed out $4.2 million in grants and loans to help keep the lights on. My awesome team o’ ladies also managed to ensure that we’re hyper-focused on women- and minority-owned businesses that are being unequally impacted by the pandemic, shining an even brighter light on systemic inequity that pre-existed the pandemic.
Post-pandemic: What’s the worst thing that could happen?
The worst thing that could happen is that our employers forget all the lessons learned from the pandemic. What lessons you ask? We learned that many employees can work remotely, if not every day, many days during the week.
In a recent Boston Business Journal article, Jim Heppelmann, CEO of Seaport-based PTC Inc. said of remote work: “What we're doing now has actually worked okay, but it's not sustainable. Because we started with a tight-knit group of people, and the knitting is coming loose as time passes, as we hire new people, and so forth. So I think we do need a hybrid..."
The worrisome thing is that the article’s title “In comments to chamber, PTC chief executive calls remote work 'not sustainable'” may lead some to believe that this executive is saying that everyone should be back full-time. When you read the article, you notice the nuance of “So I think we do need a hybrid”.
I don’t know about Jim’s home life, kids, or marital status. What I do know is that he’s not a working mom. He is however representative of the corporate culture in this country. An astounding 91% of Fortune 500 CEOs are still white males. Also, the age of the CEOs puts them all squarely in their late 50s. I could be wrong, but in my experience, this hardly lends itself to the hope that (older, white, male) CEOs will be understanding that remote work, hybrid work, and flexible schedules are an absolute godsend for working parents in general, but most certainly mothers.
Jim’s statement that “we do need a hybrid” is critical, because though I like to see my colleagues, the businesses we serve, as well as community members, I don’t need to see them every day. In fact, through my work since March, I’ve proven repeatedly that I don’t need to be with them at all.
Pandemic shone a light
There are dozens of articles about how the pandemic is setting women in the workplace back decades. In December 2020, women accounted for 100% of the net 140,000 job losses. As despicable as this number is, it’s not a surprise to anyone paying attention. Women still take on the majority of family rearing and taking care of the home. They also tend to be the primary care-givers for elder family members. That equates to 2-3 full-time jobs that women are managing on a regular day. Add in the pandemic with hybrid or remote school, reduced access to and increased cost of childcare, and inflexible employers, many women made the obvious but painful choice to leave the workforce. As an economic development professional, this is a critical blow to the economy from which it could take decades to recover.
I have so much more to say on this subject, but I leave you with a few points:
Employers need to get on board and stay on board with flexible schedules and remote work.
Employers and state governments need to support childcare as the critical infrastructure it is.
Everyone needs to recognize if 50% of your population can’t figure out how to make work, work, we are in for a serious problem with our economy long-term.
