Dream Collective's Sarah Liu leads She Pivots team to help fight coronavirus job losses

Research forecasts the COVID-19 global recession will have long-lasting consequences for women at a rate higher than men.

The Dream Collective's Sarah Liu. Picture: Britta Campion

New statistics show that women have been the most affected by COVID-19 when it comes to job losses, and are likely to suffer a prolonged dip in income and workforce participation.

The data, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations, found that the impacts of the COVID-19 global recession would be likely to have long-lasting consequences for women at a rate higher than men.

In the period from March to April, female unemployment dropped by 8.1 per cent compared with 6.2 per cent for males.

A new tech initiative called She Pivots, from Sydney-based women leadership outfit The Dream Collective in partnership with Canva, Google, Amazon Web Services and Datacom, is aiming to provide training for 10,000 women who have lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19.

The Dream Collective's founder and manager Sarah Liu told The Australian women have already been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, according to the latest unemployment numbers.

"Women are losing their jobs at a higher rate than men due to a number of factors, in particular they have a higher representation in the hardest hit sectors, including hospitality and travel. Further, women occupy the majority of part-time, casual and contract work, leading to their jobs being a lot more insecure, with no paid leave entitlements and results in them being the most vulnerable to job losses," she said.

"In addition, women bear a disproportionate amount of domestic and caring responsibilities, such as childcare, making re-entry into the workforce harder and much slower.”

The combination of these factors was the driver behind She Pivots, developed with "the goal of providing COVID-impacted women with support and access to job opportunities at this time. Our mission is to help ensure the continued progression of women into the workplace and leadership positions, in pursuit of preventing the progress that has been made for gender equality and female advancement come undone”.

She said the program aimed to build resilience and a career pivot plan for participants, as well as identify their strengths, help them build professional digital networks and launch job searches.

Ms Liu added that AWS is already interviewing a couple of people who have completed the program, and more than 700 people had taken up the program to date.

“This unprecedented situation we are in has seen more highly skilled and talented women in the job market than ever," she said.

"Our business is built on the mission of seeing more women in leadership. It is our responsibility to do what we can to help these women access strong career opportunities, and equip them with new skills that will improve their employability during this uncertain time.”

Perfect timing

Danielle Peel, an Adelaide-based financial educator and participant in the program, said She Pivots came out the perfect time for her.

"I was scrolling through LinkedIn and saw a shared post from a past colleague who works in recruitment. The post spoke to me," she said. "I have experience in coaching and training myself, so it is something I understand and I could do myself, but having a face-to-face visual module program really appealed to me, and it was the guidance I needed in a time of uncertainty, after being stood down indefinitely from my financial education role at a large travel company.

"Thank you so much to all The Dream Collective team, you should be so proud of what you've created and I would love to be a part of it one day myself."