Fragile labor situation for women: Child care, hurt by pandemic, is key to getting people back to work

Journal Inquirer - 9/6/2021

Sep. 6—Fragile labor situation for women: Child care, hurt by pandemic, is key to getting people back to work

By Austin Mirmina

MANCHESTER — After the initial COVID-19 outbreak decimated both her clientele and her income, day care owner Lynn Behrmann said she wanted to call it quits.

"I strongly considered just closing up ... retiring from doing child care," Behrmann said.

Behrmann, who runs the Little Duckling Child Care LLC out of her home in Manchester, called the pandemic the scariest time in her 34 years of being a day care provider because of the fear of catching COVID-19 and spreading the virus to her children at the facility. Behrmann said she is worried about what will happen when schoolchildren return to their classrooms for full in-person learning, fearing that a delta variant-induced shutdown could have more dire ramifications for her business' bottom line.

The overall economic outlook has significantly improved since this time a year ago, with fewer claims for unemployment insurance and more hiring, according to government data. Expanded federal unemployment insurance benefits have helped some endure the financial hardships wrought by the pandemic until they were able to return to work, and business owners have taken advantage of available grants designed to help spur the recovery process.

But Behrmann's situation underscores the fragility of the labor situation for many Connecticut women, who were disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

With outbreaks still occurring among unvaccinated, some local women are still feeling the stress and uncertainty that hampered them a year ago.

On Wednesday, Behrmann said she had to temporarily close her facility because the parent of one of the children felt sick, prompting her to get another COVID-19 test, nearly putting her at double digits. It was another grim reminder that any progress her business has made over the last year is, at least for now, contingent upon circumstances that are out of her control.

Child care was among the hardest hit industries during the pandemic — along with restaurants, hotels, retail, and social services — with large numbers of female workers, according to multiple state officials. COVID-19 forced the closure of about 50,000 Connecticut day care centers, with some providers electing to retire because of health concerns and headaches surrounding day care regulations, according to Behrmann.

Speaking at an Aug. 25 press conference at the Hartford American Job Center, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz detailed the struggles of women working in "pink-collar jobs," and said that Gov. Ned Lamont's administration is "laser focused" on securing funds that will help restore lost child care opportunities.

"We want women to know they are crucial and essential to our workforce and our economy does better when women are employed," Bysiewicz said.

Day care closures hurt workers who need child care

The extensive day care closures were a "key driver" of women leaving the workforce, according to Tina Courpas, executive director of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.

Fom October 2020 to February 2021, the PCSW conducted research to assess the economic impact of COVID-19 on Connecticut women, which it published in a 62-page report in April. The numbers supported a lot of anecdotal evidence that Courpas said her commission heard from some of the 1,020 women who participated in the 30-question survey.

The results highlighted "the real impact of the already insufficient child care system, which really collapsed during COVID," Courpas said.

Of the roughly 405 women with dependent children under age 18 who responded to the survey, 66.1% of them — about 268 women — indicated that that increased demands in the home, such as homeschooling their children, brought by COVID-19 impeded their ability to work.

WOMEN AND WORK

The Permanent Commission on the Status of Women surveyed 1,020 Connecticut Woman and found:

—26.5% furloughed or lost their jobs

—33.0% experienced a decrease in total monthly income

—66.1% of women with dependent children indicated that the increased demands of work in the home impeded their ability to work

—16.1% reported that their career advancement had been impaired

Another notable result: about 270 women who responded, 26.5%, were either furloughed or lost their jobs.

Sherrie Duncan, 31, who is a manager at Elmo's Dockside in Vernon, said that she and many of the restaurant's servers — 95% of whom are women — had their hours reduced when Elmo's closed indoor dining last year. Duncan said she had to juggle working two nights a week serving takeout at the restaurant while also caring for her 5-year-old son, who did remote schooling from their Vernon home.

"Having (my son) home and not having a sitter for him, that was definitely tough," Duncan said.

Data from the Connecticut Department of Labor highlighted the economic disparity between women and men caused by COVID-19. In the week preceding the official start date of the pandemic, March 13, 2020, there were a total of 48,662 weekly unemployment insurance claims, with men (29,965 claims) outnumbering women (19,094 claims).

By the following week, the total number of claims had soared to 132,790, with women (73,312 claims) outnumbering men (59,461 claims), starting a trend that has continued through July 31. The difference in weekly claims between women and men reached a high point of 37,230 claims during the week of May 16, 2020.

Low-wage workers lost jobs

A Labor Department spokesperson said the department had received 10 years worth of claims in a single year.

Patrick Flaherty, the Labor Department's director of research, said his department has been tracking unemployment claims by gender and age since the beginning of the pandemic. Flaherty confirmed COVID's disproportional affect on women — but noted that Connecticut is seeing "record-breaking" average wages among both men and women because so many low-wage earners lost their jobs.

"When you think about who in the health care industry was laid off, it wasn't the surgeons, it wasn't the doctors. It wasn't the highly paid, even the nurses," Flaherty said. "It was some of the ancillary workers, the folks who are doing administrative work in the dental offices, maybe some cafeteria workers."

After completing her studies as a nursing student prior to the pandemic, Manchester resident Musonda Nyendwa, 40, got her first taste of action treating sick COVID-19 patients as an essential worker on the frontlines.

"In my case being a nurse, this was the point where I actually started getting some income," Nyendwa said.

Fran Pastore, who is the founder and CEO of the Women's Business Development Council, has been at the center of the effort to help restore women-owned businesses in Connecticut. Her nonprofit organization has provided grants to women in every county in the state, and is about to launch another round of funding.

Pastore said that the WBDC is part of Lamont's initiative to get money into the hands of child care businesses, calling it an important part of the state's infrastructure. In the last 12 months, Pastore said, they've provided $1.6 million in grants to women in the child care industry.

"The whole purpose (of these grants) is to get these businesses open so women can back to work," Pastore said.

Child care a necessity

Bolton resident Victoria Abherve, 25, said she was recently hired at a Cumberland Farms in Manchester. Abherve, who found out she was pregnant at the start of the pandemic, said she quit her job as a gas station clerk at the time because she feared for her personal health — having asthma and a heart condition — and the health of her unborn child.

"I just had to cut my losses and rely on my partner for income," Abherve said.

But Abherve is now in the process of separating from her partner and is going back to work, highlighting the struggle for single mothers who need child care.

Through funding from the Office of Early Childhood, Behrmann, the day care owner, said she has been able to keep her business open. However, she knows that the upturn in business might be fickle.

"That money is not going to last forever," Behrmann said. "You have to start taking that into consideration that if things get bad, what are we going to do next?"

Austin Mirmina is the Journal Inquirer's business reporter and also covers the town of Windsor.

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