A game plan for putting Connecticut”™s women back on a path to post-pandemic economic security was the topic of a new report unveiled by the Greenwich nonprofit Girls With Impact.
The report, titled “A Post-Covid Economic Recovery for Connecticut”™s Women,” pointed out that women have been four times more likely on a national level to have left the workforce compared to men. Among unemployment claims filed by women, 75% were filed by women without a college degree.
Within Connecticut, women made up the bulk of the pandemic-era’s frontline workforce in the food trade (56%), education (67%) and health care (78%). But 68% of the women polled by the report said their ability to return to work was impaired while 68% said their or their family’s education was impaired by the crisis and 33% experienced a decrease in income.
Connecticut’s women of color were particularly challenged, with 54% of nonwhite women who worked for lower incomes being more likely to be furloughed or laid off from their jobs. Half of the women of color surveyed for the report showed a decrease in monthly income and 33% said they were unable to pay tuition during this time.
Jennifer Openshaw, CEO of Girls With Impact, said “Connecticut”™s women have shouldered the burden of Covid”™s economic destruction. By creating a thoughtful post-Covid economic recovery plan, we can put Connecticut”™s women on a path to long-term economic stability ”“ and at the same time, benefit this great State and its employers.”
Among the issues that women surveyed for the report wanted policymakers to address, childcare overwhelming stood out, with 93% of respondents identifying that subject as the main goal for a post-Covid economic recovery. Other issues cited as priorities were training in high-growth employment areas (89%) and job placement (75%).
Key recommendations from the report for getting women back to work included:
- Providing structured training programs.
- Create a re-skilling entry portal: providing candidates with access to resources for job training in high-growth industries, internships, mentoring and other experiential learning.
- Engage small and medium business for internships/apprenticeships.
- Raise awareness about accessible, wrap-around services: childcare, financial counseling.
- Engage corporations to commit to internships/apprenticeships for women.
- Supplement training with professional and career skill development.
- Remove bias in the hiring process and work to retain and develop diverse talent.
The new report involved the input of nearly 50 leaders from education, the private sector and government. This is the latest endeavor by Girls With Impact, which runs a 10-week, afterschool business and leadership academy course for women ages 14-24 that is designed to grow entrepreneurial endeavors from ideation to a business plan and venture pitch while assisting women in improving their confidence, leadership skills, college readiness and professional capacities for success.
“The first time we brought together a cohort of young women who went through our academy that are now presenting their ventures ”“ my mouth dropped,” said Openshaw. “We need to precondition women for business as early as high school. We work on engaging venture capital and private equity firms to back this effort and to underscore that they need to create a pipeline of next generation entrepreneurs.”
