Financial Downturns Hit Women Harder – Here’s Why Bad Economies Affect Women More

The stock market may be skyrocketing, but normal people aren’t benefiting. 

Inflation continues to soar, companies are laying people off en masse, minimum wage is still stagnant, and it’s harder than ever to find a job. 

Everyone suffers in these tough economic times, but women face unique challenges that cause even more strife. Here’s how bad economies affect women. 

Women Report More Financial Difficulties Than Men

A recent study by global recruiter Robert Walters found massive disparities in how the cost of living crisis affects men versus women.

The findings show that women are underpaid while receiving fewer perks, such as raises, bonuses, and additional financial incentives. Only 39% of women earn more than $55K annually, compared to 67% of men. Women notice the disparity, with 40% saying they feel underpaid, compared to just 24% of men.

Although both genders face stagnant wages, men are more likely to get a pay bump than women, with 85% of men receiving at least a little raise in the past 12 months compared to 76% of women. Even the raises are smaller, with only 9% receiving enough to match inflation, compared to 19% of men.

The Gap Widens When You Consider Benefits

The wage gap doesn’t tell the whole story. Women are less likely to receive other financial incentives as well.

Although the benefits picture is bleak for both genders, it’s slightly worse for women. Men are more likely to have access to a 401K at work (25% vs. 19%) and receive bonuses (19% vs. 11%), company equity (12% vs. 6%), or mortgage allowances (11% vs. 6%).

Men score bigger bonuses as well, with 65% getting the bonuses they felt they deserved. Only 48% of women reported that their bonus met expectations.

Bad Economies Affect Women: The Struggle to Make Ends Meet

The disparity in pay forces many women to seek additional sources of income. Their wages are no longer enough to survive, and they must make ends meet. 

Only 25% said they can live comfortably on their incomes, and 10% rely on a second job or income source to make ends meet.

Women Face Even More Challenges in Retirement 

Because women make less money throughout their lives and live longer than their male counterparts, they’re especially vulnerable in retirement.

Women’s median 401K balance is 65% lower than men’s, and they earn nearly $4000 less in Social Security per year than men. Because women tend to live longer, those smaller savings need to stretch even further.

Vulnerable to Abuse

The disparity in women’s incomes, employment prospects, and availability to work due to other obligations makes them vulnerable to abuse. 

Because they can’t find a living wage, they can’t leave their abusive partners. Some must leave the workforce to take care of children, but their dependency on their husbands leaves them open to financial abuse. 

When women can’t take care of their own financial lives, they become dependent on men, who sometimes use that power to abuse the women in their lives. 

Problem Transcends Tough Economies

Bad economies affect women hardest, but even when times are good, women earn less than their male peers and have to rely on additional sources of income to get by at nearly twice the rate of men.

Addressing such a nuanced problem presents a massive challenge. While gender discrimination certainly plays a role, cultural standards contribute to the discrepancy.

Disparities in childcare are among the most significant contributors to the gender wage gap. Women are more likely to choose flexibility over income when they have children. They’re more likely to quit their jobs and become stay-at-home moms.

When couples split, women are more likely to bear the burden of childcare, limiting their employment options.

“Woman’s Work” Deemed Less Valuable

Society also assigns different values to work performed by different genders. Traditionally, “male” work pays more than “female” work. Studies have shown that industry pay scales decrease as more women enter. 

When nursing was male-dominated, it was valued more. Now that women typically enter the field, it’s been devalued. The same holds true for teachers, ticket-takers, and designers. 

Society devalues fields when women enter them. 

But a Bad Economy Makes it Worse

A 2022 study in the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance analyzed uncertainty and gender equality across 100 countries for nearly 30 years. Researchers discovered that uncertainty increases gender inequality in employment. 

Economic uncertainty exacerbates the issues already present. Women who could barely make ends meet before now can’t. 

And men, who were once secure enough in their “provider role” to accept women in the workforce, lash out at the possibility of being passed over for a job by a woman. 

“Low Status” Men Most Sexist

A study of misogyny in gaming highlights how this happens. Researchers sought to discover how introducing women to male spaces impacts behavior. To do so, they studied the popular game Halo, recording the differences in responses to male and female players. 

Researchers discovered that the worst male players were the most misogynistic, while the best male players were the most welcoming. The result suggests that men with the most to lose try the hardest to push women out. 

When we relate this to how bad economies affect women, we can assume that men who fear losing their provider status will reject women in the workforce. The worse the economy, the more men at risk, the more misogyny we experience. 

How Can We Fix This?

Complex problems aren’t easy to resolve, but we’re doing half the population a horrific disservice by refusing to acknowledge it.

Universal childcare programs would be a massive step forward, but they wouldn’t change society’s attitude toward women. 

To do that, we need to do the hard work of confronting our bias and understanding why we don’t think women deserve equal pay for equal work, why we value work more when men do it, and why we don’t value some of society’s most crucial needs, like childcare and domestic labor. 

In addition, we need to examine our ideas about gender, masculinity, and femininity to understand why men feel so threatened by women who outearn them (or outplay them). The sooner we realize that patriarchal ideas of what men should be harm everyone, the better off we will be. 

Ultimately, we must find a way to true equality, where everyone is celebrated for who they are, not what parts they were born with.