FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 1, 2022

CALIFORNIA BLUEPRINT FOR WOMEN’S PANDEMIC ECONOMIC RECOVERY RELEASED

California Women are Essential to Economic Recovery

(SACRAMENTO) – The California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls (CCSWG) releases the California Blueprint for Women’s Pandemic Economic Recovery (Blueprint) today. The first of its kind, the Blueprint is designed as a foundational document that explores the unique economic impact the pandemic had on California women using specific state-level metrics such as Unemployment Insurance, debt levels, and CalFresh Benefits with comparisons to national data. This report provides key insights on the status of women, from the enormity of unpaid care in the home to industry-wide shifts in the workforce and serves as a Call to Action now and for the future: Without immediate and direct intervention, women – especially women of color – will continue to unnecessarily experience deeper levels of poverty and decreased health outcomes that will have an impact on every citizen for generations to come.

“The pandemic dramatically shifted the full burdens of caregiving and domestic work onto the shoulders of mothers working full time,” said First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. “I am grateful the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls has taken on the critical work of understanding how gender-specific investments- particularly in our caregiving infrastructure- are critical not just to the health of California women and their families, but to California’s economic growth and long-term prosperity.”

CCSWG’s Blueprint explores in-depth the intersectionality of COVID’s impact on women, their families and the state’s economic standing. Further, it forecasts the disproportionate economic impact that Long COVID will have on women and the economy moving forward. It makes policy recommendations and overall, makes a case for public policymaking and crisis response using gender lens.

“At the onset of the pandemic, we knew women were bearing the brunt of the impact both at work and in the home. As the crisis continued, the Commission raised concerns and advocated for an immediate response,” said CCSWG Executive Director Holly Martinez. “The Commission invested funds in women-specific research to examine the economic impact of COVID-19 on California’s women and girls which produced the Blueprint which centers the economic needs of women and girls as critical to the state’s economic recovery.”

The California Blueprint for Women’s Pandemic Economic Recovery is a comprehensive plan based on the research CCSWG conducted in partnership with the California Policy Lab (CPL) to shed light on points of pain and bright spots of hope amid the COVID-19 pandemic for a more equitable economic recovery for women. It describes the collective trajectories of groups of women who entered the pandemic already in economic difficulty and explores opportunities to chart new paths based on impact data from federal and state support programs and interventions since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Below are a few of the highlights from the Blueprint:

Women entered the COVID-19 pandemic more economically disadvantaged as compared to men due largely due to existing systemic inequities, particularly impacting women of color. The pandemic added an estimated 36 years to the time it will take for women to make the same amount as men, bringing the total to 135 years.

Pandemic unemployment affected poor women, and women without college degrees, hardest. Frontline and service sectors, what we called “essential workers,” were the most impacted. In many of these sectors women are occupationally segregated, making up in some cases more than 70% of a particular industry’s workforce. It is critical to understand that it is not just certain professions or service workers that we lauded as essential – it was women who dominate those sectors as employees. Women are essential to the economy.

The total amount of Unemployment Insurance (UI) payments to men during COVID was higher because men’s incomes are higher in general, reflecting a persistent wage gap between men and women. However, the number of women claiming UI was significantly higher than the number of men. Overall, because of how UI benefits are calculated, males, more educated workers, and white workers typically receive higher UI benefit amounts than other workers.

In California, if all working women and working single mothers earned the same as comparable men, their poverty rate would be reduced by about 40%. Additionally, the estimated average earnings increase if all working women earned the same as comparable men would be 15.8%. That equates to an additional $68.45 billion or 2.2% to the state’s economy.

As the pandemic has worn on, the burden of caregiving responsibilities has fallen disproportionately on women. These responsibilities are not limited to childcare but encompass a full range of responsibilities including care for other family members, such as aging parents, sick
family members, or loved ones managing a disability. The National Women’s Law Center report from 2021 found that 33% of married working mothers identified themselves as their children’s sole care provider, leading many to find themselves in impossible to manage
positions.

Undervaluing caregiving is a critical issue we must address. Jobs in paid-care fields which are female-dominated have historically been low-wage and the average child daycare employee earns just $25,000 annually. 92% of these workers are women.

In general, caregiving at different stages of a woman’s career has varying impacts on her lifetime earnings and financial outcomes. For example, working fewer hours and wages lost due to caregiving earlier in life makes women caregivers two-and-a-half times more likely than non-caregivers to experience poverty later. By comparison, a woman in the latter half of her career, (50 and older) who leaves employment to provide care for aging parents is shown to lose, on average, nearly $324,004 in lifetime wages and benefits, directly impacting retirement goals.

The COVID-19 virus impacted men and women differently, with women facing an elevated risk of Long COVID and more significant impacts to their workforce participation. As California’s economy recovers, Long COVID coupled with workplace bias, wage gaps, and the disproportionate impact of inflation and debt will hold back recovery for nearly half of the state’s workforce without significant intervention.

As California’s economy recovers, women of color have been slower to bounce back. Interventions that center intersectional approaches and include the women and girls impacted by the pandemic must be a priority for an equitable recovery.

About the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls

For more than 50 years, the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls (CCSWG) has identified and worked to eliminate inequities in state laws, practices, and conditions that affect California’s women and girls. Established as a state agency with 17 appointed commissioners in 1965, the Commission regularly assesses gender equity in health, safety, employment, education, and equal representation in the military, and the media. The Commission provides leadership through research, policy and program development, education, outreach and collaboration, advocacy, and strategic partnerships. CCSWG produced the California Blueprint for Women’s Pandemic Economic Recovery. 

About the Blueprint

The Blueprint is a comprehensive plan based on the research CCSWG conducted in partnership with California Policy Lab (CPL) to shed light on points of pain and bright spots of hope amid COVID-19 pandemic for a more equitable economic recovery for women. To review the full Blueprint, visit www.women.ca.gov.

For more than 50 years, the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls (CCSWG) has
identified and worked to eliminate inequities in state laws, practices, and conditions that affect
California’s women and girls. Established as a state agency with 17 appointed commissioners in
1965, the Commission regularly assesses gender equity in health, safety, employment, education, and
equal representation in the military, and the media. The Commission provides leadership through
research, policy and program development, education, outreach and collaboration, advocacy, and
strategic partnerships. CCSWG produced the California Blueprint for Women’s Pandemic Economic
Recovery. Learn More at www.women.ca.gov.
About the Blueprint:
The Blueprint is a comprehensive plan based on the research CCSWG conducted in partnership with
California Policy Lab (CPL) to shed light on points of pain and bright spots of hope amid COVID-19
pandemic for a more equitable economic recovery for women. To review the full Blueprint, visit
www.women.ca.gov.
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