Women have played a fundamental role in the face of the pandemic. The COVID-19 outburst has affected all industries and thus most households’ currents situation. In this scenario, women have also felt the crisis, but perhaps for different reasons. While the pandemic brought along a strong economic downturn, it has also altered demand for some specific products and services, and few of the sectors came out unaffected. Consumer spending, elasticity of demand and consumer habits have all changed because of the pandemic and our new normal.
The pandemic has brought light to sectors which are often disregarded but who we must rely on. As the average monthly salary for nurses of 980 euros in Portugal, the pandemic has increased their demand by 168% which could have positively affected their wage, and thus brought about a lower turnover. Instead, a nurse’s wage remains only 380 euros above minimum wage, and a total of 1230 nurses a year try to be transferred abroad.
This crisis emphasized the importance of the care industry, of which 60% are women. Women occupy a large proportion of the front-line jobs, such as nursing and medical assistants. Even so, this women-dominated industry suffers inequalities and salary gaps. On top of already low wages and very little staff retention, phenomena such as the ‘glass escalator’ have often been reported in hospitals, where men are fast-tracked towards managerial roles. This is a situation that tends to occur, although not exhaustively, in feminized workplaces.
Seizing an opportunity and overviewing a situation that could be optimized are core aspects of entrepreneurship. Such gaps in the markets can be used to generate profits but can also directly or indirectly providing a solution for all those involved. This is the case of MyCareForce, a startup founded in 2021, provides a digital platform on which nurses can be hired with more flexibility, and according to their own availabilities. By challenging the status quo and offering quicker reaction to market needs, MyCareForce has come as a timely response to the criticized management of the healthcare system during the pandemic. Although changing regulations around average wages of an entire field is not something we can hope to do without political action, there is always a way of alleviating. By creating a platform on which nurses can manage their own schedules and hours MyCareForce is hope for a future of more ownership and equality in the healthcare field.
History has shown that governments do not necessarily take action to mitigate change, but usually act as a reaction to it. As individuals and entrepreneurs, it is within reach to provide relief in a time of crisis, and to contribute to the solution as much as possible to be less reliant on governmental action. Positive impact can show wearing different hats, and we can only hope to see more positive initiatives taken and to lead the way through challenging times and persisting inequalities.
Co-written by Catolica Equality for Business club and Nova Women in Business Club.
References
https://www.portugalglobal.pt/PT/PortugalNews/Paginas/NewDetail.aspx?newId=%7B2 126C284-B1F4-437D-A00D-45C5C24AA97F%7D
https://www.observatorio-das-desigualdades.com/observatoriodasdesigualdades/wp- content/uploads/2022/02/Que-Futuro-para-a-Igualdade_Pensar-a-Sociedade-e-o-Pós- pandemia.pdf
https://saude.cplp.org/media/2165/portugal_-ig-e-covid19-portugal.pdf
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