Women and Lifelong Employability
Abstract
The economic consequences of the global pandemic have greatly impacted employability in the United States, especially for those with limited means and protections such as health insurance and sick leave. The pandemic has exposed existing vulnerabilities and inequalities in our economic system. Women have been particularly impacted by job and income loss. Many women who worked through the pandemic found themselves on the front line providing essential services while taking on the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Furthermore, the pandemic has highlighted the problem of unpaid care and domestic work where women have experienced a disproportionate burden compared to their male counterparts (Impact, 2020). As we move out of the global pandemic and into recovery, labor composition, workplace values, and employment rules of engagement are once again changing. Events such as the transformation of capitalism, globalization, and the pandemic have put an end to full employment as we know it and subsequently has led to new career models (Insa et al., 2016). Technology has moved society beyond a single workspace and into environments where flexibility, agility, and lifelong learning are needed to maintain longevity in the workforce. To keep pace and succeed in the labor market, lifelong employability should be viewed as an investment that is managed with mindfulness and purpose (Murray, 2015). Additionally, employability is greatly influenced by career attitudes and skills (Santos et al., 2019). For example, Dalton et al. (2018) posit women value skills that foster connections across people, contexts and knowledge while male’s value skills that foster being heard and standing out. Understanding both perspectives will allow women to better strategize employment opportunities and move beyond psychological and social barriers to employment. While there are many constructs of employability, for the purpose of this paper employability constructs will be limited to reinvention, resilience, reframing, and resolve.
