This Women’s History Month, We’re Writing a Bleak History

Cue the shiny graphics, virtual high fives, and emojis: March is all about women!

We’re honoring Women’s History Month & International Women’s Day this March, but there is hardly cause for celebration. As we mark our first trip around the sun in our pandemic lives, we find ourselves in the throes of a she-cession and an unprecedented crisis for women in the workplace — one that threatens the livelihoods of millions of American families, the innovation and operations of countless American organizations and a century’s worth of progress of women’s earnings and leadership in the workplace.

As I first predicted in March 2020 and then again in August 2020, we are hemorrhaging women and moms in the workplace a year into this pandemic.

As the CEO of a women’s leadership coaching and advisory firm, I follow these issues daily, not just on March 8 (International Women’s Day). In fact, on my computer I actually keep a file called “sad data.”

So as we spotlight women this month, let’s shine the light on the crisis we find ourselves in and look at the data:

  • 6%: the percentage of women leading the country’s top 3,000 companies, according to the Wall Street Journal

  • 2,500,000: the estimated number of working moms who have left the workforce during COVID-19, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

  • 42%: the number of moms surveyed by LinkedIn who have considered quitting their job in the last year

  • 2%: the number of Fortune 500 companies with Black female CEOs, according to LinkedIn

  • 82 cents: what women earn for every dollar earned by a man (all pay gaps widen for women of color), according to the U.S. Department of Labor

  • 69 cents: what working moms earn for every dollar earned by working dads, according to the National Women’s Law Center

  • 78 cents: what women entrepreneurs earn for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, according to Inc. Magazine

THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE: WE’RE DOING A TERRIBLE JOB.

A few years ago, the World Economic Forum put out a report that, at current course and speed, we could close the gender wage gap in … wait for it … 202 years. That was if nothing else changed.

While many experts have predicted that it could take a generation or two for women to recover from this she-cession, the compounding effect of the pandemic could be with us for centuries. We were 202 years away in the best of times and don’t yet know the full implication of the worst of times. We do know enough, however, to understand that the prognosis is bleak.

The pandemic has illuminated that our support structures for working women — and working mothers in particular — were nothing more than a flimsy house of cards. The infrastructure supporting us, from the worst parental leave policies in the developed world, to the sky-high cost of childcare, to the lack of flexibility — and often invisible punishments of being “mommy-tracked” for using flexibility, was barely good enough in The Before Times. In our pandemic lives, what little we have has completely collapsed, taking the aspirations and earnings of millions of women down with it.

Perhaps most troubling is the way women are internalizing the systemic failures that have caused us so much anguish over the past year. According to newly released research from LinkedIn, 60% of working women feel like they’re “underperforming” in different areas of their life as a result of the pandemic.

Working moms aren’t just stressed out, they’re scared and they’re staying silent about it for “fear of retribution.” The same LinkedIn research found that a whopping 62% of working moms have “Lied about or downplayed their stress around balancing kids and work during the pandemic. And more than a third say they have experienced backlash, negativity or reprimanding at work as a result of interruptions or conflicts due to parenting responsibilities.”

Perhaps the moniker of Women’s History Month is accurate this year: We’re writing history. A particularly bleak and awful chapter, but history nonetheless.

Randi Braun is a coach, consultant, speaker, and the Founder of Something Major. Get in touch with Randi via email or social (below). Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

Randi Braun