Oxford Map the System -2021 Semi-Finalist

event. Map the System is a global competition of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, delivered in partnership with educational institutions around the world. 

date. April 2021

title. The Great She-cession:  The Impacts of COVID-19 on Women in the US Workforce. 

summary. In the first quarter of 2020, the world entered lockdown as the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus — a pandemic of seismic proportions — eradicated life as we knew it. One year later, in a continued time of unprecedented crisis, women were still paying the brunt of the economic price.

Around the world, women serve disproportionately underpaid roles in the informal economy, in addition to serving as the majority of single-parent households (United Nations, 2020). In the US, as of March 2021, 5.4M women left the workforce. Our team chose the United States as our focused geo boundary to bring systems thinking level awareness to economic gender inequality exacerbated by COVID-19.  Our report covered the root variables, components, and causes behind women being disproportionately impacted by job loss during the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.