Nobody "Chooses" Economic Precarity
Oct. 24th, 2020 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingCovid-19 Explodes the Myth That Women 'Opt' Out
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-10-20/covid-19-explodes-the-myth-that-women-opt-out-of-the-workforce
In August and September, more than a million people dropped out of the workforce. Eighty percent of them were women. Women have been losing jobs at a rate far higher than that of men throughout this recession, figures that can’t be entirely explained by industry effects. And it might get worse.
I hope this will be the end of the “opt out” myth — the assumption that one reason, maybe even the main reason, you don’t see more women leading organizations or governments is that so many women “choose” to stay home. In reality, the number of women who give up their careers is small, and the choice is almost never truly a free one.
Although the article includes a short paragraph about how "interviews with professional women who drop out point to intransigent workplaces as the biggest problem" (with "intransigent workplaces" meaning, in this case, jobs that don't allow for any flexibility of scheduling), something the writer doesn't address is how many women are probably being pressured to leave their jobs by mounting stresses within the workplace.
Not only are women expected to pick up more work at home, one can only assume that they're expected to pick up more work at their actual jobs as well. In addition, preexisting prejudices more than likely influence employers to see female employees as expendable, so women's (entirely understandable) inability to deal with the stress resulting from increased expectations in less-than-favorable circumstances is probably used as a rationality for either outright firing them or making them so uncomfortable that they leave of their own accord.
The purpose of this short article is to help bust the myth that women "choose" to leave the workforce because they're "opting out," which is perhaps why the author's focus is on married women with children. Still, unmarried women and women with no children have been forced to drop out of the workforce as well, so I think there's something else going on here besides "husbands aren't helping out with childcare."
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-10-20/covid-19-explodes-the-myth-that-women-opt-out-of-the-workforce
In August and September, more than a million people dropped out of the workforce. Eighty percent of them were women. Women have been losing jobs at a rate far higher than that of men throughout this recession, figures that can’t be entirely explained by industry effects. And it might get worse.
I hope this will be the end of the “opt out” myth — the assumption that one reason, maybe even the main reason, you don’t see more women leading organizations or governments is that so many women “choose” to stay home. In reality, the number of women who give up their careers is small, and the choice is almost never truly a free one.
Neat.
Although the article includes a short paragraph about how "interviews with professional women who drop out point to intransigent workplaces as the biggest problem" (with "intransigent workplaces" meaning, in this case, jobs that don't allow for any flexibility of scheduling), something the writer doesn't address is how many women are probably being pressured to leave their jobs by mounting stresses within the workplace.
Not only are women expected to pick up more work at home, one can only assume that they're expected to pick up more work at their actual jobs as well. In addition, preexisting prejudices more than likely influence employers to see female employees as expendable, so women's (entirely understandable) inability to deal with the stress resulting from increased expectations in less-than-favorable circumstances is probably used as a rationality for either outright firing them or making them so uncomfortable that they leave of their own accord.
The purpose of this short article is to help bust the myth that women "choose" to leave the workforce because they're "opting out," which is perhaps why the author's focus is on married women with children. Still, unmarried women and women with no children have been forced to drop out of the workforce as well, so I think there's something else going on here besides "husbands aren't helping out with childcare."
no subject
Date: 2020-10-26 09:13 pm (UTC)I am, and continue to be, ludicrously fortunate that my own workplace is actively supporting both parent and non-parent workers, of all genders, and is actively treating our safety really seriously, but I see so many examples of friends' workplaces that are not, and you have a really good point about the extra stress. None of us are at our best this year, but I feel like that hits extra hard on some of us and less on others.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-28 03:28 pm (UTC)I've also been employed in supportive workplaces, and it's kind of amazing how not going out of your way to be a dick is both easy and sustainable and costs practically nothing.