By Eileen Hoenigman Meyer
omen's Equality Day, August 26, marked
the 101st anniversary of the ratification of
the 19th amendment, securing women's
right to vote. This year's occasion was bittersweet,
as pandemic complications have challenged women
on multiple fronts.
The pandemic has been economically brutal
for women. Oxfam International reports: "The
COVID-19 crisis cost women around the world at
least $800 billion in lost income in 2020, equivalent
to more than the combined GDP of 98 countries."
Men suffered too: 3.9 percent of the world's male
population lost their employment. But the world's
women, already paid less for their work, lost more
jobs. According to Oxfam's report, five percent of
the world's women lost their employment in the
pandemic's
wake.
The Oxfam
report notes that
internationally, women
lost more than 64 million jobs when their roles
were dissolved, they became unworkable due to
pandemic challenges, or for other reasons. In the
U.S., 1.8 million women left the labor force.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett, economist, author and
academic who has long studied the barriers
working mothers face, recently tweeted: "Two
million mothers quit jobs because of the pandemic
childcare crisis. More left the fast
What Women's
Equality Day
means for higher
education
W
EQUALITY continued on
page 62
Women In Business September 2021
60
