Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says, COVID-19 takes tragic toll on women’s job and income

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, COVID-19 has had an “extremely unfair” impact on the income opportunities of the women.

In a dialogue with the International Monetary fund chief Kristalina Georgieva, she said that it was critical to address the risk that the pandemic would be such a strong hit, declining the prospects for women in the workplace and economy.

She also said that women’s contribution to the economy was already lower in the U.S than in Europe before the pandemic, another issue that needed to be addressed.

“I think it’s absolutely tragic, the impact that this crisis has had on women, especially low-skilled women and minorities,” said Yellen. She said this noting that the people who were at the top of the economic scale are still at the top while the ones who were at the bottom are hit even more harder after this pandemic

“It is an extremely unfair thing that’s happened,” Yellen said, noting that women as a group had experienced far greater job losses. Its because they have been disproportionately representing in the service sector and many had dropped out of the labor force to care for children, who were out of school.

As of January, women accounted for slightly more than half of the 10 million jobs lost during the coronavirus crisis, even though they typically make up a little less than half the U.S. workforce.