A sobering report from the BC Women’s Health Foundation (BCWHF) on the impact the pandemic places on women’s health reveals employed women in BC are at a higher risk of getting COVID-19.
The gendered nature of the workforce often results in women working in healthcare, retail, education and accommodation/food services, according to Genesa Greening, President and CEO of BCWHF.
“A gendered workforce really helps us to understand how essential women really are to having a strong economy, that having us involved in the economy requires us to have a different view on things like child care and caregiving,” Greening added.
The report added, “Historically, girls and young women have been encouraged into occupations with high levels of flexibility, under the assumption that they will eventually be the primary caregivers of children and other family members.”
The trend of imbalanced socio-economic impacts stretches across the whole province and is also taking its toll on working women in the North.
“For women working in rural and remote areas in those particular sectors, the other piece means there is higher exposure to the public and with that comes a higher risk of contracting COVID, which means all the additional stresses that come with it,” said Greening.
Over 50% of employed women in BC work in one of these industries that often require face-to-face-public interaction and 1 in 5 women that work in BC are employed in Healthcare, according to Greening.
Anxiety stemming from job security is another impact working BC women have to face, as the report notes that women lost 60% more jobs than men in March 2020.
“It’s safe to say that we’ve seen substantial increases in uptakes in Depression and Anxiety in both men and women but disproportionately for women during COVID,” noted Greening.