Amid an alarming labor shortage across all employment levels, we risk losing the skills, talents and perspectives of 51% of our population when we don’t tailor our produce companies and roles to women’s needs today.
After schools closed, daycares shut down, and relatives fell sick during the COVID-19 pandemic, many working couples were forced with tough decisions, resulting in the spouse with the lower salary to quit to be the full-time, unpaid caregiver — causing further regression of women’s workplace gains since the 1970s.
Professional women have long held a disproportionate responsibility in caring for children and aging parents compared to professional men for many historical reasons.
The first year of the pandemic knocked 54 million women around the world out of work, widening the gender gap in employment, according to the Washington Post. It could take years for that gap to narrow again.
Of the women who lost jobs in 2020, almost 90% exited the labor force completely, compared with about 70% of men.
And as we learn how to deal with the pandemic better, produce professionals are still dealing with enforced 10-day quarantines due to exposure at daycare, school or work, plus the threats of new variants, such as omicron.
Megan Nash, program director for the Center for Growing Talent, hosted Produce Marketing Association’s November Virtual Town Hall: Women are Good for Business. The session included several leaders at produce companies who shared their experiences and solutions for making sure we recruit and retain female talent in the fresh produce industry.
"I’ve talked to so many women who are trying to decide whether to stay in the workforce or step back."
— Julie Lucido, CEO and president of Marketing Plus
Company leaders are changing policies already due to the pandemic, but they need to ensure the workplace is doable for women when there are other emergencies, such providing toys and nursing rooms for mothers when children are sent home from daycare or school, and flexible hours. These workplace amenities can benefit fathers as well.
“There was really nothing like COVID to make leaps and bounds happen. I’ve talked to so many women who are trying to decide whether to stay in the workforce or step back,” said Julie Lucido, CEO and president of Marketing Plus, Fresno, Calif.
Team-building, inclusivity and retention are key issues for company leaders to revisit and implement new plans.
“Companies need to think in terms of not just compensation, but what are we doing to provide immeasurable value to employees?” she said.
Failing to get women back into the workforce can be detrimental to the broader economy.
And in the produce industry, we know to market to female shoppers, who still do more than their fair share of household errands even in two-income households.
Looking at U.S. Census Bureau data from 1980 to 2010, Amanda Weinstein, assistant professor of economics at University of Akron, studied how women’s participation in the workforce influences wage growth in about 250 U.S. metropolitan areas. Her findings were published in the Journal of Regional Science.
“I consistently found that as more women joined the workforce, they helped make cities more productive and increased wages,” she said in her article in Harvard Business Review.
One economic theory suggests that as more women join the workforce, the labor supply overall is bigger, which lowers wages as more people compete for jobs.
But Weinstein discovered that for every 10% increase in women working, we see a 5% increase in wages.
Men and women of our younger generations are sharing more household duties than in the past. Behind many female CEOs are husbands who took on a good share of childcare.
Inclusive hiring practices are also key, said Amalia Zimmerman-Lommel, director of social responsibility and human resources for San Diego-based Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce/GoodFarms.
“Have someone conceal the names on resumes before you decide who you’re going to interview. Then it comes down to education, experience and skills. There really is a bias for most, if not all, of us,” Lommel said. “As for asking for a salary history, don’t do that anymore. Base the salary offer on the market, a compensation report, the type and level of the work.”
Most of the panelists discussed how important it is to network with other women in the produce industry, participate in career coaching and mentorship.
Build an environment of cross-functioning teams, said Denise Junqueiro, vice president of marketing and communications at Oxnard, Calif.-based Mission Produce.
“When you have to work together, it’s very common you have to work with all genders and many ethnicities,” she said. "It’s easy for all of us to get bogged down. We work in an industry of putting out fires, and it’s hard to pull yourself away from that. But you really have to be thoughtful about it. It’s about being intentional in a different way instead of just meeting a quota.”
Professionals in charge of budgets need to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion training and development in the budget every year as a key to success, said Lucido.
“For everyone on the team, not just salespeople,” she said. “Discuss micro-aggressions, habits that sneak in even with the most well-intentioned. Having that for your team is very important.”