On February 27, 2020, the first case of covid-19 was registered in Mexico, a couple of weeks later the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the virus as a pandemic. A pandemic that exceeded any forecast and that led to a health and economic crisis. A pandemic in which 12.3 million jobs were lost in Mexico between March and April 2020. A pandemic that highlighted and exacerbated the structural problems faced by women. A pandemic that affected and continues to disproportionately affect women.
Although it seemed endless, today you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the decline in infections, there is a lack of clarity about what the business sector has learned from the pandemic. Faced with the Mexican government’s uncertainty about returning to offices, the private sector drew up its own action plan and began a gradual returnin staggered groups and in hybrid schemes.
However, uncertainty permeates what it will be like when the end of the pandemic arrives and if hybrid schemes will remain, a concern that is not minor.
The women face greater barriers to participate in the labor market, since they spend more than twice as much time on housework and care, and in the absence of flexible formal employment options, they are at greater risk of leaving the market. Returning to schemes that do not contemplate remote work, staggered schedules or inclusive policies would be a mistake.
The pandemic accelerated business Innovation and showed that it is possible to be productive without being physically in an office or even that it is possible to have remote meetings whose advantages of connection with people from other places can be successful.
These types of strategies encourage participation of more women in the paid economy by making it easier to reconcile work and personal life. In Mexico, only four out of ten women are part of economic activities, this represents the fourth lowest participation in Latin America after Cuba (40%), Guatemala (36%) and Venezuela (34%), according to the Bank World.
A flexible work schedule It allows women to have more time to carry out other activities beyond unpaid work and offer their time in the labor market if they wish. In addition, it allows moving towards co-responsibility, where men, having the same job flexibility, can redistribute household and care responsibilities.
The pandemic showed that those companies that implement work-life policies They are more resilient to change. Inclusion practices must respond to the context and needs of the workers and can consider everything from flexible hours to extension of paternity leave or child care services. The first step is to break paradigms and privilege work for results. Coupled with a flexible work modality if you don’t want to lose female talent when you return to the office.
Mexican companies cannot be left behind, must be inclusive and constantly adapt, that without a doubt, the corporate world is far from being as we knew it before March 2020.
*The author is Coordinator of the Inclusive Society of IMCO (@fergarciaas)