HUNTSVILLE, ONT. -- I would like to think there is so much to celebrate on International Women's Day and to be fair there is, yet it feels different this year - because it is different.
Prior to the pandemic, women made great strides in increasing educational levels, entrepreneurship was soaring, and many were climbing the corporate ladder.
But not all women.
Women still make up a larger percentage of workers in social services, education and personal care to name a few. Sectors that have been slammed due to the coronavirus were more likely to be laid off or forced to work reduced hours.
In short, women have born the brunt of job losses and it could take years to recover from the financial devastation. Women have been more likely to resign from work or take time off to care for children or other family members.
In fact, according to a recent report by RBC, almost a half a million Canadian women who have lost their jobs during the pandemic haven't returned to work.
This is concerning.
I reached out to Jennifer Reynolds, President & CEO of Toronto Finance International. Here is what she had to say,
"There is a large risk that women will lose ground economically relative to where we were pre-pandemic and that the impact will widen the income and wealth gap between men and women on a long-term basis. Breaks in career, or downshifting, no doubt have a long-term impact on the wage gap and the skills gap. Companies need to be focused on taking measures to retain the women they have, and to bringing back those women they may have lost already. If we don't take measures to retain women in the workplace, the gender gap in leadership will only widen in the years to come."
I have been focused on women and money for decades and the reality is we now have to take control back of our skills, our finances, and press forward on the wage gap regardless of the pandemic.
Ingrid Macintosh who leads TD's Women and Wealth said it best when she said:
鈥淪tudies have shown that 90 per cent of Canadian women will be the sole financial decision makers in their household at some point in their life, yet many women are also disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Women need the financial services industry now, more than ever, to offer better advice and services for them. One critical factor to bridge the gap is acknowledging that there is no one-size-fits-all approach that can be taken to address the diverse needs of all women, and that understanding that everyone鈥檚 financial goals looks different. The industry needs to prioritize financial literacy programs so that any woman has the tools they need to make personal finance decisions with confidence.鈥�
By 2026, women are expected to control, for the first time, over 50 per cent of the wealth in Canada. They are starting new businesses and rising through their organizations at a faster pace.
As this milestone comes into sight, some challenges remain, including the impact COVID-19 has had on women. While the employment rate for Canadian working-age women hit record levels prior to the pandemic, that progress has been brought to a temporary halt. According to Statistics Canada data, the pandemic has erased 20 years of progress.
My ask this International Women's Day is to not allow the pandemic to erase the strides that have been made. In fact, let's continue to harness the uniqueness we have to continue to move forward so our celebration in 2022 feels a lot different.
