There’s a growing trend in the workplace — one that is distressing to professional women, as a whole.
In fact, the growing trend of women disappearing from the modern workforce in the wake of COVID-19 has led to a new term to describe the trend: she-cession.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, women have lost 5.4 million jobs since the pandemic began and women participating in the labor force is at its lowest since 1988. Black women and Latinas had higher rates of unemployment before the pandemic; in February 2020, 2.8 percent of white women were unemployed, compared with nearly five percent of Latinas and Black women. In December, those rates nearly doubled, with Black women being twice as likely to be the breadwinner of their families compared to white women.
And this she-cession is also one that’s confirmed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which confirms that companies that have more than 51% Black and/or POC ownership were “hardest hit” by the pandemic, too.
But it seems like one company — Generation USA — is working overtime to reverse the she-cession trend. By offering what they call “reskilling programs,” Generation USA prioritizes women and underserved communities for admission into its reskilling programs — which they also continue after graduation, by placing women on sustainable career paths.
“At Generation USA, we’re a diverse staff of more than 90 individuals, over 74% who identify as women,” said Jeannie Guzman, Chief People Officer of Generation USA, in a press release announcement about their programs, which are now online. “More than 75% of our leadership team identifies as women, too. We believe this is key for our organization — to represent the same diverse backgrounds of the students we seek to serve.”
For more information about Generation USA, admissions, or how your company or college can get involved, visit their website here.
