SALT LAKE CITY – As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, new research has revealed that Utah women are experiencing more exhaustion than they feel hopeful about. It occurs as revenue decreases and hours increase in some industries.
Data from the Utah Women & Leadership Project was recently released as the pandemic has experienced a rage for more than a year and has led to the death, economic crises and mental health problems of residents.
“We need to do specific things in our communities to increase hope and bring down (feel) burned out,” explained Susan Madsen, founder and director of UWLP. “Because our exhaustion is greater than our hope right now.”
A total of 3,542 Utah women responded to the survey, exceeding the original target of 2,000 respondents. Tuesday’s report is the first of several upcoming briefs on the impact of the pandemic on women living in the hive state.
The research aims to measure where Utah is compared to national trends that showed that American women have suffered disproportionate effects of the pandemic compared to men and, as a result, have been forced to abandon the higher workforce; the phenomenon has been dubbed the pink recession.
While Madsen expected Utah to follow national trends, he said it is important to study specific areas and get information about what is happening in local communities.
“Knowing exactly where we are in the state of Utah is much better than knowing generally what’s going on (in the country),” he explained.
While Utah has reflected some of the same trends nationally, the state has excelled in other areas.
“We are the same in many ways, but we are different in other ways,” Madsen said, noting the large economy the hive state has maintained.
The data differed by industry, showing that the percentage of women who reported a decrease in salary was the lowest for people working in construction fields, at 5.1%. About 13.6% in construction said their hours were increasing.
Other industries were inversely affected, with 25% of the hospitality and tourism industry reporting that their wages fell and 4.4% reporting that their hours had increased. A total of 27% in the manufacturing industry reported that their income decreased and 12% said their hours increased.
“Because a decrease in pay and an increase in working hours could lead to more mental and emotional stress, these data were summarized together,” the researchers explained in the paper.
On average, those working in food services experienced a decrease in income, but also an increase in working hours, with 26% reporting a decrease in income and 29% reporting an increase in income. hours.
“As for the emotions that could result from declining revenues and increased working hours, respondents indicated feeling exhausted at levels above expectations in all industries except trade , transport and public services, where they are equal “. researchers wrote. “All Utah women reported that they are burned and at the same time have ‘some’ hope for the future.”
Child care
Many women between the ages of 30 and 49 reported leaving the workforce to care for children who were unable to attend school or daycare due to the pandemic. Madsen said companies tend to shy away from tackling child care issues, but noted that resolving these barriers does not necessarily mean building an on-site nursery.
Even connecting employees with child care resources can help solve these problems and allow women who want to work to be able to rejoin their careers.
“Successful companies are going to stir things up and have already done so, and some of the best companies are really implementing these (flexible) policies,” Madsen said. “Find out what your employees need, research, collect data, analyze it, and make the changes you need to move forward; it’s not really rocket science. Policy change in companies can happen pretty quickly.”
Domestic abuse
The research also pointed to a disturbing finding: 9% of women living in Utah said they had experienced domestic violence at home since the pandemic began. For Latino and Hispanic women, that figure jumped to 11%, compared to 8.7% of white women who felt the same way.
“A lot of women struggling harder soon became (the survey),” Madsen added. “There are a lot of people even in our sample, but we know that percentage is probably much, much higher.”
The data points to a trend first reported in March 2020, when law enforcement agencies, including the Salt Lake City Police Department, said they had seen an increase in calls related to domestic violence in the first few weeks of closures. related to coronavirus.
Connecting victims of domestic violence to the right resources, such as the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, YWCA Utah, South Valley Services, and the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, is crucial to addressing these issues in the state. according to Madsen.
“We need more resources in the state of Utah, but we have some solid core resources,” Madsen said. “The problem is that a lot of people in situations of domestic violence don’t even know what to do because they don’t want to admit that’s what’s going on, they don’t want to talk about it, they don’t want to. Therefore, some of the people who need it most need to people around you say, “Hey, can you read this report that really defines what domestic violence is?”
Raising awareness about the problem itself, educating people about the signs of domestic violence and letting people know that there are groups that help is one of the most important things the state can do to address the problem, Madsen noted. .
Moving forward
Now that there is data, what can state residents do? Madsen said it’s pretty simple: implement best practices to address these issues. Companies, for example, can do research and immediately see how their business practices could be changed to better serve the women on their staff, Madsen said.
“For me, these are conversations tomorrow,” he said. “If they received this writing, companies could hold talks on exactly that.”
For state and local leaders, it is important to take action and look for ways to solve the problems that residents in local areas face.
Madsen said county and city leaders contacted their group during the project to create data based on respondents’ locations in order to establish a baseline where each area is now located, hoping to improve. problems in the future. There were differences in experiences depending on where women lived throughout Utah. For example, those living in Washington County reported a little more hope than exhaustion, while the rest of the state’s counties experienced an increase in burnout and a decrease in hope.
Solutions like the Spencer Cox adversary return program for adults affected by the pandemic’s economic toll are an excellent way to address the issues exposed by COVID-19, he added. Cox’s executive order aims to remove the barriers that many could face as they try to re-enter the workforce after suffering the constant economic constraints of the pandemic.
“The goal of a return program is to help experienced adults re-enter the staff without starting at the bottom of the professional ladder,” Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson said when the program was announced last week. past. “Diversity and life experience are valuable to us and should not be relevant to pay and opportunities in the workplace.”
Going forward, implementing more of these types of programs can really help the state develop and address some of the problems caused by the pandemic that could have a lasting impact on the state over the next few years, Madsen said.
“By understanding the research and the research that will come and then put these programs together, we can all work together to move things and change things,” he said.