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Gender Equity in Teleworking

Gender Equity in Teleworking

  • Vicente Sitóe • Manager | People Advisory Services - Consulting EY

In moments of crisis like the one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which companies are oriented towards survival and in search of a new way to position themselves in the market, there are internal aspects that are relegated to the background. We would like to dedicate this article to one of these aspects, precisely the issue of gender equity in the workplace.

Little by little, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit our country, companies were making some progress on gender issues. In addition to gender-oriented recruitments, we were seeing an increasing number of promotions of women to managerial positions. This was happening not only in positions where softskills predominate, but also in positions where hardskills are required more as in heavy industry.

Teams had an almost equal mix of men and women. Human Resource management policies tended to be applied in a similar way for everyone, which was acceptable. If this trend had not been interrupted by the pandemic, we could most certainly dream of achieving gender parity in a few years.

However, with the pandemic, the differences in treatment and approach to gender issues have resurfaced. Although national statistics on the matter are not properly organized and available to the public, it is clear that more women have lost their jobs than men. The wage gap between men and women in similar positions has widened.

Furthermore, the transition to telecommuting has not been fully accessible to women, as they are more represented in work sectors that require face-to-face service or direct contact with customers. Hence their positions have been questioned, in most cases, and even suspended. Even in the current scenario of return to normality, not all suspended positions have yet been restored.

There is no doubt that last year was a major economic setback for millions of women and that, in the context of our country, it will take longer to return to the pre-pandemic rates of gender equity

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What’s more: telecommuting is treated by companies in the same way for men as for women. For us, who are Consultants in Human Resources matters, we realize the difference between a man working from home and a woman in the same situation, having to combine it with her roles of husband and father, wife and mother, respectively. This accumulation of roles is conducive to failure, below average performance and even stress development for women.

A United Nations report in the early days of the pandemic revealed that the impacts of the virus, including economic impacts, were exacerbated for women, who are more likely to earn and save less than their male counterparts, have precarious jobs, or live near poverty. There is no doubt that the past year has been a major economic setback for millions of women, and that in the context of our country, it will take us longer to return to pre-pandemic rates of gender equity.

That said, we would like to recommend that companies use this moment of return to normalcy to advance women- and family-focused policies that will help boost gender equity quickly. We also recommend that they put in place psychosocial support programs for their teams with a focus on strengthening respect for gender issues.

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