The Pandemic ‘Reglazed’ the Glass Ceiling: Now What?

Now that the pandemic has exposed systemic inequalities in the workplace, it’s time to act.

The Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing recession have created an extraordinarily challenging time for everyone, especially if you’re a woman or a person of color.

New data shows how employment gains made by women last year have been erased by this economic downturn, exposing enduring structural inequalities.

An estimated 31% of U.S. women were unemployed in November. That’s according to a more inclusive metric of “true employment” by Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), Axios reported. Compare that to the official unemployment rate of 6.1%.

“While a larger percentage of women may have some form of employment, those jobs fail to provide a living wage,” says Gene Ludwig, LISEP's founder. If the reports “are any indication, the glass ceiling has been reglazed and double-paned in terms of opportunities for women in the workforce.” 

For Ludwig and other keen observers of equality dynamics, “reglazed” term underscores how many of the recent gains and breakthroughs in terms of gender equality have proved to be short-lived.

It’s easy to tune out statistics. This comic from Vox helpfully illustrates what these numbers mean. What is happening is that women’s time is becoming worth less. How do we claim it back? And how long will it take?

More obstacles thanks to the pandemic means that it will take much more effort, public policy and push to undo the “glass ceiling” reglazing that Gene Ludwig and other researchers are pointing to.

All of these statistics point to what we knew all along. It’s not enough that more women or minorities rise to prominent cabinet positions. We still have to talk about what these gains mean for women as a whole and how current economic difficulties will impact the long-term.

Earlier this year, I spoke to Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest, about the effect of the pandemic on women’s wealth for Millie magazine.

“There is so much ink spilled on the gender pay gap, but the gender wealth gap is much worse and has been going in the wrong direction,” she said then. “Income is how much comes in, while wealth is how much you keep. If it all comes in and it all comes out, you don’t have a cushion. ‘Wealth’ is the word we should be focusing on now, because we need that financial security.” 

As 2020 is drawing to a close, we’re seeing a lot of these troubling trends exacerbate.

By now, we all know that Covid-19 is having a toll on women’s wealth as well as health.

So how do we get unstuck and start breaking that glass ceiling?

1. Start measuring women’s progress in a way that reflects reality.

Not just the unemployment figures, but measuring women’s wealth. That means how much women get to keep. We need to show this in a way that is more actionable and reflects the  true breakdown of wealth, while also highlighting  obstacles to progress in the U.S.

“One of the biggest issues we have -- we don’t have a lot of data that breaks down wealth by gender and race,” Heather McCulloch, founder and executive director of Closing the Women's Wealth Gap, told me earlier this year. “It’s really hard to do policy without data.”

According to McCulloch, there is no standardization, so it’s been challenging for researchers to get consistent data overtime.

2. Media organizations, especially business news outlets, need to dig deeper. 

It’s not enough to publish “women are suffering more now” stories, or limit these stories to women’s publications as if inequality doesn’t impact everybody. We need to dive in deeper and ask questions about how we impact change; who’s responsible; which government agencies are trying (or not); which officials are proposing relevant proposals; and what it means for the economies when we do achieve that equality. 

3. Talk to your representatives and make sure economic equality is a priority.

It’s also not enough to limit our broader political discourse to the pay gap or limited measures like board quotas. 

These are limiting measures that can only go so far and can easily backfire.

In Paris, for example, there is pushback and even fines in promoting too many women to senior positions.

There are no quick fixes to systemic inequality challenges. Without thoughtful economic policy, broad political movement and mandate to enact lasting change, we’re not going to get anywhere beyond limited political slogans.

4. Educate future generations about true measures of impact.

Lasting change will take more than one generation or presidential term. It will take more than one government agency or NGO. It will take millions of people, who are passionate and knowledgeable about underlying issues and willing to eradicate our social ills.

For us to truly get rid of the “reglazed” ceiling, we need to include a more comprehensive picture of women’s financial history, economic progress and what continues to hold us back.

It’s not enough that “feminist TikTok” has been educating a new generation of activists about the true state of the world. These issues need to be a bigger part of our formal education if we can ever hope to resolve them. 

What else? What other actions can we take now to create and inspire change going forward? Comment below.