Women Suffer During Lockdown; Just-in-Time Takes Way Too Long

Stories for Thursday, April 1.

Women Got Financially Screwed By the Pandemic

If you’ve been following economic news at all the past year or so, you will have noticed that there have been two separate “recoveries” from the pandemic-induced recession.

White collar workers who could easily work from home are a little mentally frazzled but financially whole.

Blue collar, retail, or other in-person customer-facing workers who have to be present at a brick and mortar business (or not at all) are maximally stressed and financially broken.

And women bore the brunt.

Just read what Bloomberg had to say about the “she-cession”,

By just about every measure other than mortality (which is pretty important!), the Covid-19 pandemic has been harder on women than on men.

The majority-female services sector lost jobs at at a faster rate than the majority-male goods-producing sector — which has never happened before in a recession.

More women than men have dropped out of the labor force.

Even women who held onto their jobs generally had to shoulder an outsized share of the new child-care and schooling burdens.

And from The Washington Post, (emphasis added)

The coronavirus pandemic has been catastrophic for women, economically.

Of women ages 25 to 44, 32 percent have dropped out of the labor force to care for children — while only about 12 percent of men the same age have done so.

This has left millions fewer women in the workforce than there were pre-pandemic, setting many women’s economic security back years.

Prior to the pandemic, average earnings for women was only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, with equal pay estimated in the year 2059.

Current estimates show that equal pay has been pushed back to 2156.

Why were women hit so hard?

1. Many jobs lost were part time, and women historically are over represented in part time jobs due to family duties (the infamous Second Shift).
2. Education, leisure/hospitality, and retail jobs were the hardest hit, and again, women make up the bulk of those positions.
3. Gender discrimination in who gets fired, as seen in the government sector where women account for only 58% of the work but recorded 91% of the job losses in December 2020.

The Takeaway

While the disproportionate negative financial impact of the pandemic on women to mostly due to systemic issues, don’t look to any outside benefactor to set things straight anytime soon.

The best thing you can do is protect yourself.

For women:

• Get financially literate. If you are already, get more so.
• If you’re in a relationship, make sure you have an equal say in your finances.
• Do your damndest to split household chores.

For men:

• Stop pooh-poohing the gender pay gap, sexism at work, and invisible labor at home. They are all real. And they all suck.
• Don’t just “not do” the bad, sexist stuff. Actively encourage and enable the women in your life to do the things listed above.

The gender pay gap is just as harmful as the wealth gap in harming the overall economy, so it behooves everyone, man, woman, and in between, to fight for equal pay.

Side Note: As a man, I know enough to realize that women are at a financial disadvantage, but I’m not going to pretend I fully understand the unique situations women face in their personal or professional lives.

There are many amazing women financial advisors and educators who can help other women to a greater extent that I ever could. Here’s a short list.

• Farnoosh Torabi of So Money
• Bola Sokunbi and company at Clever Girl Finance
• Stefanie O’Connell
• Anna Newell Jones of And Then We Saved
• Chelsea Fagan of The Financial Diet

Just-in-Time Just Doesn’t Work Anymore

If you thought the global supply chain issues that will be brought on by the Ever Given being stuck are bad, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Due to globalization, e-commerce, and mega-shipping, the business logistics of damn near the entire world are in a bind.

Most of this mess can be attributed to the (once) standard bearer of process efficiency and cost effectiveness: just-in-time manufacturing (JIT).

The basic premise of JIT is that the costs of carrying inventory outweighed the risks of running low on product.

For most of the 20th century, this was correct. Supply chains were much shorter and there were multiple redundancies to address any emergencies.

Unfortunately, the logistical complexities and dependence on “everything going right” on a global scale is now too fraught with risk to stick with JIT.

The Wall Street Journal has a great article illustrating the current backlog of container ships outside of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. And this was already a problem before the Ever Given fiasco.

The two ports together handle more than a third of U.S. container imports, and delays there are part of a global supply-chain mess that continues even after the ships are unloaded.

In January, more than a quarter of imported containers at those gateways had to wait more than five days for handling once they reached the dock, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.

In June 2020, before the logjam, about 2% had to wait that long.

Now, you might be thinking that it was just the increase in imports due to the pandemic-induced stay-at-home order that led to this issue, with people spending their time ordering stuff online.

That is only partly true.

The other part is that the pandemic is just the latest (well, second latest, what with the Ever Given) “issue” to pop up.

There will be another pandemic.

Or another canal blocked.

Or another tsunami that triggers a nuclear meltdown.

Or another computer chip shortage.

Or another volcano erupting.

The good news is that companies are finally beginning to take notice, and efforts to reverse the global supply chain, dubbed “near shoring” or “reshoring”, focusing on shortening the supply chain and increasing resilience.

The Takeaway

If you own a business, then take a minute and look at your supply chain. Are you really ready for a multi-month delay in critical parts?

For the rest of us, we need to take a look at our own personal inventory.

This isn’t a suggestion to go down the rabbit hole and becoming a bona fide prepper/survivalist. Rather, review the basics of what you need to live and make a living, and think if it would withstand a prolonged period without replenishment.

• Can you stick with your old phone or computer for the next six months?
• Is your car up to date on maintenance, or 3,000 miles overdue?
• Are your house appliances in good shape, or on the verge of breakdown?

Think about what happens when something goes wrong and you can’t just go to the store and pick up an immediate replacement.

Minimize what you buy and maintain what you own.

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This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information may be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.