It is called “shecession” and it is the recession that affects women far more than men. The phenomenon is studied internationally. Now the data of a recent study have analyzed the trend of female employment in our country on the effect of the pandemic. The numbers were collected by INAP, the National Institute for Public Policy Analysis.
The 2021 Report of the Institute photographs, for the first time, the Italian shecession: in December 2020, 9 million and 530 thousand women are employed and 13 million and 330 thousand men. Compared to the previous year there are 444 thousand fewer people employed, of which 312 thousand women, corresponding to a decrease of 3.6% for women and 2% for men. Compared to the type of work, employed women decreased by 2.6% in dependent work (against 1.9% of men) and by 8.3% in self-employed work (against the corresponding -2.5% male ).
There are several factors that have increased the shecession in Italy: the sectoral composition of employment, for which women work, more than men, in the sectors and services that have long been subject to restrictive measures and closures arranged in compliance with social distancing and who are currently struggling to recover; the failure to renew fixed-term contracts, in which women have always been present in a greater proportion, which involved 16.2% of women against -12.4% of men; the reduction in new employment relationships which in 2020 was much more marked for women (-1.975.042) than for men (-1.486.079) in almost all types of contracts (in the fixed term -52% women and – 48% men; in apprenticeships -51% women and -47% men; in seasonal work -34% women and -31% men). An incisive factor on the overall female participation was also the growing burden of care on the elderly and minors (aggravated by the health emergency and distance learning) which has strengthened the label for women over 40 of the “sandwich generation”.
“Now we need a new commitment that favors a change in these quotas and puts the issue of raising the female employment rate seriously at the center of the political agenda, which has been below 48% for more than 30 years – explained prof. Sebastiano Fadda, president of INAP – In particular, there are two directions to take: first, to reverse the perspective with which to look at the phenomenon. There is no ‘decisive’ measure but a policy mix strategy is needed that integrates labor supply and demand, in the short and long term, to address the complexity of the determinants of low female employment. Up to now, short-term measures have prevailed (such as monetary transfers, bonuses, vouchers, checks, but also tax incentives and reductions), aimed at addressing the manifestations of the phenomenon rather than its causes, while less attention has been paid to developing strategies long-term capable of affecting the structural causes at the origin of the phenomenon, causes sometimes hidden under an apparent profile of gender neutrality of the economic and social dynamics. Second, don’t miss the PNRR opportunity. The conditionality clause, implemented by the Support Decree, which requires 30% of young people under 36 and of women on the whole of new hires on PNRR projects, can represent a chance to exit the shecession. The Institute – concluded Fadda – will monitor the progress of this highly innovative measure in the public procurement system ».
The term Shecession, was baptized in the United States, and is compared with the 2008 crisis called Mancession, which instead affected jobs in the male-dominated sectors. This time around, women are the main victims of the social and economic upheaval caused by the global effects of the virus. A world-class phenomenon, which led to a 4% drop in the female workforce at OECD level and a negative impact on wages of 8.1% for women versus 5.4% for men.