Written by By: Stephanie Diana Eubank
Not to get too political, but there is so much political discussion right now on how to recover nationally from the economic devastation of Covid-19. This debate is being held politically by those who are not businesspeople or people who have advanced academic experience in economics and business. As shown in the article from Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/01/08/the-college-profile-of-the-new-members-in-the-117th-congress/?sh=12f8eb233b10 of the newly elected many have advanced degrees not all are in business, and a majority of the degrees are in law, a few MBA’s, Theology and, geology. There are also several representatives with certificates or never finished an undergrad or associate degree.
So, as a businessperson, who has the advanced academic degrees and is working on my dissertation for my Doctorate in Business Administration I would like to weigh in on how my focus topic of remote work could be a helpful method to help our country recover economically from Covid-19. Since remote work has so many benefits to the economy and the workforce in general this article will just focus on women and caregiving. I will make a whole series of articles on each benefit to a governmental push for more remote work as infrastructure.
If more benefits were given to businesses to push for employees to work remotely long term for the foreseeable future this would help business, the economy, diversity, women, issues of child and family care, and additional financial assistance to the work force as a whole. All the way around remote work helps workers balance their lives and career goals. One thing I am looking forward to as a remote worker is as my state opens up getting to take breaks and taking a walk to have a cup of coffee and brunch at my favorite mom and pop shops with my friends when they take their breaks. Which still allows me time to come home finish the bulk of my work and welcome my kids back home from school. Once I put my boys to bed, I can work on my homework and get to bed and start the day again.
I have had this ability to balance my work, school and, family luckily for the past seven years. Oh, and trust me I understand that I have been fortunate to have the ability to work remote and continue to work remote. Honestly, I don’t know how I would have been able to provide and care for my boys regardless of their disabilities if I was not lucky enough to have the opportunity to work remotely.
However, I do understand based on experience over the past seven years and now as the country is opening back up (even though there is concern of another wave of COVID and its variants) management pushes back against remote work. (This is mostly because remote work causes managers to have to develop empathy and lead authentically not using the term as an excuse to emotionally abuse employees by being a jerk. See my previous article on that topic.) Yet, if government makes a push to help both large and small companies push for remote work where it can be done it may be the push needed to really recover.
The statistics are compelling on how remote can help our economy. Especially for women. First off in the US the concept of a full-time mom is not normative anymore due to economical constraints. Speaking from example of being both the child growing up in a dule income home and being the mother of a dual income home, it is few and far between that families can afford to be a one income household. Even though my life, family, and my husband’s work are here in Silicon Valley California. Which also happens to be one of the most expensive places in the country to live. It also doesn’t help that traffic is so bad here as well but, that’s a different article to write. There is little ability to have a single income family to have the bandwidth to be a full-time mom not just here but nationally. The Population Reference Bureau as seen in the article, https://www.prb.org/resources/traditional-families-account-for-only-7-percent-of-u-s-households/ found in 2003 only 7% of American’s we able to live in a one income household with children. Where dual income with children at the time was 16% of the US and dual income without children was at 13%. The other 64% were single parents and single people. And according to The Hill article https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/543941-americas-single-parent-families 30% of American Families are single parents usually moms with a child under 18. Of that 30% of single parent families 75% are single moms. The article goes on to break down the socio-economical statistics of single moms but, it points out the face 51% of the single parents in the US are fellow minorities. Specifically, Hispanic, and African American families are the most effected. Single moms tend to also make less and have less work opportunities regardless of education, experience, and skills (again a soap box for a different day). What is heart breaking single moms are 34% more likely to be impoverished.
The article also mentions that 57% of American’s scapegoat single parents, single moms especially and comment on them working too much and not being enough for their kids or not working hard enough. (again another soap box as I have been a single mom, a working mom, and a student mom all at the same time and remote helped me do it all and teach my boys hard work ethic and how it pays off. In an area that to be middle class for a family of three the income required is $150k for a single income so we were poor for our area. I also like to think it taught my boys that I love them so much that I work tirelessly to make sure they have every advantage I can possibly provide.)
Women are also statistically the main demographic as a caregiver for family members who are disabled or elderly. Which largely is unpaid! According to the statistics on the Family Caregiver Alliance https://www.caregiver.org/resource/caregiver-statistics-demographics/ their data was collected by AARP and found 34.2 Million Americans provide unpaid care as of 2015, 16.6% are adults caring for disabled children and 34.2 Million of these caregivers are caring for someone 50+ years of age again unpaid. I have had several friends who while caring for family members who were ill or disabled would not have been able to care for them on their own if they didn’t work from home. Of those friends fortunately they worked from home, so their family members did not die alone. These friends were both men and women with varying ethnicities and socio-economical backgrounds. Though per the same article AARP found that 75% of unpaid caregivers are women.
There is also the remote team pitfall of many companies pre- Covid-19 would create what are called “dream teams” which are teams made up of experts in their field. This is done without regard for team design of personalities or on how well each person works together in a cohesive team.
This design flaw can be used to the advantage of women in the economy. Per the PEWs research https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/20/u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force/ women make up a little over 50% of the college educated work force and 46% of the over all workforce is women with higher education. Also, the PEWs research showed that of all the undergraduate degrees earned in the US 57% were awarded to women. This means the push for advantages of remote work would bring highly educated women opportunities to balance the caregiving role that societally tends to be thrust onto women more than men.
The benefits of the government viewing remote work as an infrastructure cause will help the economy and work force from the bottom up. With the focus just on the women of the US work force an increase of remote work would allow for more women to keep themselves and their children out of poverty just from the view point of caregiving and childcare restrictions physically and financially on women and families. It would also create more opportunities for educated women to shine in the workplace.
Remote work as infrastructure cannot be understated. Yes, working and caring for others is HARD work! However, one thing Covid-19 taught America is we are not afraid of a little hard work and when given the opportunity to work remote life and work continued.
Dr. Stephanie Diana Eubank DBA Remote Team Research (AKA Dr. Bear) 