Addressing the detrimental impacts of COVID-19 on women in the workforce: Where do we go from here?

This paper analyzes national and global statistical data and reports to investigate the status of women in the workforce subsequent to the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, identify issues, and propose a path forward. The disproportionate adverse effects of the pandemic included higher unemployment rates among women and greater job losses within female dominated industries and women owned businesses as compared with men, and health challenges heightened by pandemic-related stresses. Further, the responsibility for compensating for the sudden removal of accessible childcare services which followed school and daycare disruptions and closings nationwide, overwhelmingly fell to women—whether they were single or married. Some analysts report that the pandemic served to reassert the unequal division of labor in the household between men and women. Researchers have posited that the pandemic’s impact will retard women’s progress in the workforce for decades if not generations. Strategies for counteracting these effects must entail targeted measures focused on promoting women’s re-entry in the workforce including: the normalization of flexible work schedules to foster a more balanced home and work-life for women, increased family leave for mothers and fathers, more quality and affordable childcare as well as more onsite childcare facilities to meet employees’ needs.

The Importance of Considering Debt and Young Children in Activation: A Survival Analysis of Return to Welfare

While there has been much research on welfare exit and entry into employment, less research has looked at return to government assistance. Applying survival analysis on data from a national government assistance programme in Singapore, we found two important factors of welfare return to which activation programmes need to pay greater attention. First, return was more likely if former beneficiaries accumulated a higher number of types of arrears rather than higher dollar values of arrears. This new finding contributes to the emerging literature on bandwidth tax, and suggests the importance of designing programmes that relieve mental accounting due to debt and poverty. Second, return was more likely if respondents had an infant or toddler child. This points to the importance of a range of support policies including affordable and accessible childcare, exemption from work requirement in receipt of welfare, and family leave for low-wage workers.

Fathers and Family Leave Policies: What Public Policy Can Do to Support Families

There are various types of family leave available to fathers across and within countries. The specific design features of family leave policies are associated with how well used they are by fathers, and the key features associated with higher take up by fathers are presented here. There is an emerging literature on the various impacts of fathers on leave in relation to factors such as family health and well-being and gender equality in the labour market. In particular, fathers and family leave are important for a good quality of infant life. Finally, the chapter considers ways in which employers can support fathers in the workplace to take leave, in light of the range of associated benefits.

Paid Maternal Leave is Associated with Infant Brain Function at 3-Months of Age

The first few months of postnatal life are critical for establishing key neural connections that support the development of subsequent social, cognitive, and linguistic skills. Yet, the United States lacks a national policy of paid family leave during this important period of early brain development, despite previous research demonstrating links between paid leave and improved maternal mental health, lower rates of infant mortality, and increases in cognitive skills during toddlerhood. The current study examined associations between paid maternal leave and infant brain function at 3-months of age using electroencephalography (EEG). Even after controlling for influential infant and family characteristics, results indicate that compared to unpaid leave, experiences of paid leave were related to distinct EEG profiles, possibly reflecting more mature patterns of brain activity. Findings from this study support past work demonstrating the benefits of paid leave on infant cognitive development and extend this work into early neural functioning. Together with past research, this work suggests that policy interventions mandating paid family leave may lead to reductions in sociodemographic health disparities and set the stage for healthy neurocognitive development.