The Growing Club CIC is a not-for-profit community interest company, successfully running employment and enterprise training for women in North West England.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their training programmes in the usual face-to-face delivery were unable to continue. Whilst all businesses have been hit hard, the organisation has seen a worrying trend of women-led businesses being particularly negatively affected by the pandemic.
However, the organisation has readily adapted to the lockdown situation, delivering all programmes online within one week. They were awarded the government small business grant, so they were able to prioritise keeping delivery going, paying their team and ensuring support for the women they work with, was able to continue.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) conducted their Quarterly Labour Force Survey and found that women and young people (under 25s) were more likely to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with long-term economic consequences for these groups. This, they believe, is due to the groups being more likely to hold employment in areas that have been forced to close down due to the pandemic and social distancing requirements, like restaurants and hotels for example.
The United Nations has also issued a warning of the global COVID-19 crisis increasing inequalities for women. The UN’s senior gender adviser, Nahla Valji, said:
“There is no single society where we’ve achieved equality between men and women, and so this pandemic is being layered on top of existing inequalities, and it’s exacerbating those inequalities.”
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has also raised the alarm, launching a report on the risk of reversing the already-limited progress of gender equality and women’s rights. The report contains recommendations on how we could put women’s leadership and contributions at the heart of resilience and recovery.
The Growing Club’s founding director, Jane Binnion, said:
“We surveyed women within our network, on the impacts of COVID-19 has had on their own businesses. There were a variety of issues that our women have experienced during the pandemic. We are very concerned by what we are seeing and hearing from some of the women who use our services.”
Issues reported during the survey include:
1. Businesses
The responses received showed that the majority of women have been affected by the pandemic, with many businesses needing to close. One respondent, *Karen, stated:
“My business has ‘fallen off the edge of a cliff’ and I have furloughed myself.”
2. Finances
The impacts for women whose businesses have suffered under the pandemic are varied, with several women stating that their income has been dramatically reduced and they’re unsure what the future holds.
One respondent, *Anna, stated:
“I had to stop working mid-March. It has been tough, not just financially, but emotionally too. I have had to apply for Universal Credit which is upsetting as I was getting to the point where I wasn’t needing benefits for much longer.”
3. Home-schooling
Many women have assumed full caring responsibilities for young children, along with having to now teach them from home. Several of those children have additional needs, resulting in the women being unable to work on their own business, if it is still active.
The pressures of taking on a domestic role, often with the male partner working full time from home, tend to fall to women.
One respondent, *Sarah, stated:
“My business has totally stalled since I am now trying to home-school children. I’m not making anything. The businesses that were selling my product have been forced to close and I have been unable to approach new ones. I don’t have the energy to work on online selling.”
4. Wellbeing:
Many women report feelings of overwhelm, with tiredness and worry impacting them on a day-to-day basis. Lots have reported being proactive in dealing with these feelings, and trying to prioritise self-care, through yoga, meditation and other methods.
The reality of quarantine life is that some women and children are now in lockdown with abusive and violent partners and some women are having to live on next to no income. One woman in the network has been self-employed for just over a year, not only has to wait until June for her self-employment support payment, but also expects to only get £95 a month. She is a single mother.
The Growing Club’s COVID-19 strategy was based around prioritising the women within their network, using support and techniques to stay focussed and motivated with peer sessions and one-to-ones. The weekly virtual drop-in sessions have become weekly goal-setting and check-in sessions. Keeping in touch and helping to keep women buoyant has become a priority.
Jane said:
“The hardest thing for us to see is women unable to participate. We talk a lot about women doing the double shift – running a business and a home. But this situation has really demonstrated that domestic responsibilities are not shared equally, even when they can be.
“The outcome of that is women cannot attend to their business, or take part in the many business support sessions being delivered via Zoom. Women with young children on our employment skills course had to immediately drop-out. We have paid attention though, and adapted our delivery to be as inclusive as possible.
“Post-lockdown, we absolutely must place great weight on creating a level playing field for women. Extra financial support should be ring-fenced for women running small businesses, on a local and national recovery agenda, because these women have had the critical jobs of caring for and educating our children or caring for the elderly, at the expense of their own businesses suffering.”
“Most will recover, but once again, it will be done with women having one hand tied behind them.”
