Published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 March 2021

A year on from the start of the COVID-19 recession, it’s worth reflecting on how Australia has emerged. On many fronts – economic activity, jobs, confidence, retail sales – things have gone surprisingly well. But the recession hit some groups harder than others. And for women, the long-tail impacts will further slow their glacial progress towards economic equality.

The COVID recession was Australia’s deepest since the Great Depression. While all Australians felt some effects, the economic pain disproportionately hit young people, those in insecure work, and women.

Indeed, women are recovering from a COVID-19 pincer: they were more likely to lose paid work and more likely to take on extra unpaid care.

Women’s jobs were hit harder than men’s during lockdowns. At the peak in April, almost 8 per cent of Australian women had lost their jobs, and women’s total hours worked were down 12 per cent. The figures for men were 4 per cent and 7 per cent.

Remote learning and the loss of formal and informal childcare and household support services also led to a big rise in unpaid work. Women took on more of the additional load, off an already higher base. Flow-on effects were evident: paid work by mothers fell sharply, as did enrolments in higher education for women over 25.

Some of these effects were temporary: the employment bounce-back was faster than expected as lockdowns eased, schools reopened, and the economy began to recover.

But for some there will be a long tail to this recession. Female-dominated sectors such as higher education and tourism won’t be ‘COVID-normal’ until international borders reopen, most likely in 2022. And paid work among some groups, including single mothers, is still well below pre-COVID levels.

The scars from unemployment will also persist for many. Even temporary spells out of work have been shown to have longer-term effects on women’s earnings and career progression. The wash-up is the COVID recession will be a backwards step in the slow journey towards reducing gender inequality and the gulf in lifetimes earnings between men and women.

But governments can still make policy decisions that would help boost the recovery and women’s economic opportunities.

Governments should continue to use fiscal policy to support demand until the economy reaches full employment and wages start to grow. Premature moves to austerity would mean longer spells of unemployment and under-employment for many, magnifying the risks of scarring, especially for young people and women.

Additional stimulus should be targeted to overlooked sectors, especially hospitality, universities, and tourism, to help bring down unemployment faster and support women’s jobs. Major direct supports so far have been targeted at construction, manufacturing, and utilities – despite these sectors suffering much less in the way of an economic hit or job losses.

Broader-based policies including extending the JobMaker wage subsidy scheme to more employers would also help strengthen the recovery.

But if we want to materially improve the living standards and economic security of Australian women, then pre-COVID normal won’t be good enough. Governments should look for policies to help Australia to ‘build back better’. The focus should be on improving living standards and economic opportunities.

Making childcare cheaper is the biggest thing the federal government can do to support women’s employment. High out-of-pocket childcare costs are a major disincentive to work for mothers, particularly beyond three days a week, putting a hand-brake on the economy as well as women’s earnings and career progression.

The aged care sector also needs significant structural reform. The royal commission’s recommended rights-based model will not come cheap, but it is the only way we can ensure that vulnerable older Australians receive the care they need. This will also require better training, pay and conditions for aged care workers, most of whom are women.

The same concerns around pay, conditions and workforce pipelines also plague the disability care and childcare sectors. These longstanding problems deserve some serious policy energy and should be tackled via a broader inquiry into the care workforce.

On International Women’s Day we should reflect on the fact that the COVID crisis was particularly tough on Australian women. Beyond token statements, governments should put their money where their mouth is and build a recovery for all Australians.