COVID-19 is setting Canadian women in finance back by decades

One survey shows nearly one in 10 women in Toronto finance has considered quitting; no men have even thought about it

Part of Justin Trudeau’s economic strategy since becoming prime minister has been to increase the power of women in Canada’s labour force. It was working until COVID-19.

Canada had the highest participation rate for women in the Group of 20, according to an OECD report last year. By comparison, the U.S. ranked 10th. The employment rate for Canadian working-age women hit a record last September, Statistics Canada data show, but the virus erased 20 years of progress — at least temporarily.

The group whose employment levels are furthest away from pre-virus levels? Moms with school-age kids. Women are also cutting back their hours more sharply than men, and the impact COVID is having on their ability to work extends all the way up the economic ladder.

In the nation’s financial hub, where efforts have been made to boost the number of women in leadership positions, one survey shows nearly one in 10 has considered quitting their jobs while no men have even thought about it.

Fresh labour-force data are due Friday in both Canada and the U.S. and will underscore what’s at stake as schools open in the fall. While Canada mostly avoided a summer resurgence of COVID-19 — it has fewer than 6,000 active cases — the picture is still one of delays, uncertainty and disruption.

“We cannot fully reopen our economies until we can safely reopen schools. And we may not be able to safely reopen schools,” Frances Donald, global chief economist of Manulife Investment Management, said in an interview.

There are also consequences for diversity, especially in the upper echelons of business where women’s progress has been slow and hard-fought. It doesn’t take much to set back the clock.

Generational Impact

A July survey of 300 professionals by Women in Capital Markets, a Toronto-based industry group, showed a worrying trend: 9 per cent of women said they were considering quitting their jobs and the same percentage asking for a leave of absence. No men said they were thinking of quitting, though 8 per cent said they’ve considered asking for reduced hours.

“When something in the family is too tough, it’s still usually the women who take the step back in order to ensure that the household continues to function,” said Camilla Sutton, chief executive officer of the organization. She’s particularly worried about mid-level women in business who may be in the throes of child-rearing. If a big chunk of that cohort quits, or steps back, “you have a pipeline gap for the next generation.”

Unless they pedal harder.

Belle Kaura has the energy and organizational skills you might expect from someone with three law degrees who has worked in big roles at Bank of Montreal, Pacific Investment Management Co. and now Third Eye Capital Management Inc., a private-credit firm where she’s head of compliance.

We cannot fully reopen our economies until we can safely reopen schools. And we may not be able to safely reopen schools FRANCES DONALD

Before the pandemic, she was out the door before her kids were awake, catching an early train to work long hours in Toronto’s financial district and tacking on evening events two or three nights a week. Her husband runs two dental clinics outside the home from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. During the school year, her parents would pick up her daughters and look after them until she or her husband got home, sometimes letting them stay overnight. In summer, all-day camps replaced school and the routine held up.

When COVID-19 struck, all that went out the window. Now her elderly parents are social distancing and Kaura is working from home while supervising Meliya, 13, and Sofia, 9. Her employer has been supportive but her professional workload has also increased with market volatility, she said, a common observation in the investment industry. A fits-and-starts return to school will make everything much harder.

“You try to keep all the balls in the air at all times. But inevitably at the end of the workday or the work week, you feel like your efforts are inadequate on some front,” Kaura said in an interview. The days are so long her kids now book time slots in the evening hours to talk to her, having already started Facetiming her from inside the house to avoid walking in on meetings.