The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted lives around the globe, but not everyone’s life has been changed in the same way, specifically women. Below we detail new working opportunities women can find during the pandemic.
New Working Opportunities Women Can Find During the Pandemic – Overview
While men are at an increased risk of severe illness due to COVID-19, women are bearing the brunt of unemployment and childcare during the pandemic. Women comprise the majority of essential workers, including 80% of nursing staff in the U.S, putting them at increased risk of contracting the virus.
Combined, these factors put women in a difficult position. Not only is it challenging for women to return to work while childcare options remain limited, but employment as an essential worker puts the whole family at risk.
As a result, many women are turning to opportunities that let them work from home so they can juggle work and childcare while keeping their families safe. But how can women find these opportunities, and how do they determine if a work-from-home position is legitimate? This is what women need to know as they seek a path forward during COVID-19.
Flexible work: What’s out there?
Once a rarity, remote jobs are becoming commonplace in the current economy. That’s good news for women searching for work-from-home opportunities during the pandemic. These are common jobs that hire remote staff:
- Data entry
- Customer service
- Virtual assistants
- Medical transcription
- Bookkeeping and accounting
- Translation
- Tutoring
- Writing and editing
- Social media marketing
- Graphic design
- Computer support
To search for remote work opportunities, women can turn to mainstay job boards like Indeed as well as sites like We Work Remotely, FlexJobs, Remote.co, and Jobspresso that specialize in remote positions.
Women should also look for openings at companies that hire remotely, whether they’re fully-remote companies or companies utilizing remote workers during the pandemic.
Unfortunately, some remote job listings are scams. Applicants should always research companies to ensure they’re legitimate and watch for red flags when searching for work online.
What Women Should Know About Starting A Home-based Business
Entrepreneurial women may opt to start a home-based business instead. Starting a business offers the benefit of setting your own schedule and workload, allowing women to achieve the flexibility they need. There are a variety of home-based businesses women can start with minimal capital, including:
- Consulting
- Bookkeeping
- E-commerce
- Child care
- Tutoring
- Pet sitting and dog walking
- Cleaning services
Regardless of business type, marketing is key to success. While local marketing is best for local services, women offering consulting and other digital services should expand their reach using social media, email newsletters, pay-per-click marketing, and other marketing tactics.
Alternatives to Returning to Work
Paid work isn’t the only way for women to keep their careers moving forward. Some women are using this recession as an opportunity to go back to school and build their skills. With job opportunities limited and many careers on pause, there’s no better time to invest in professional development.
Women searching for a degree with a broad application should consider a business degree. Whether it’s healthcare administration, IT management, or general business management, business degrees confer real-world skills that can be applied to a variety of careers.
Tips for Working From Home During the Pandemic
Whether they’re working from home or earning a degree online, juggling focused work and childcare is no easy task for women during the pandemic. Rather than attempting to do two things at once, women should create a workday routine that schedules their most productive hours during children’s downtime. This allows mothers to help children with distance learning as needed and retreat to a home office when it’s time to work.
Productivity techniques also help work-from-home women make the most of their hours on the clock. The Pomodoro technique is one popular strategy. This approach involves working in 25-minute bursts followed by short breaks. Women can also try the Getting Things Done and Zen to Done techniques for help getting organized.
For more work from home tips, visit this article. Also, be sure to check out this list of products that will aid your work-from-home efforts.
New Working Opportunities Women Can Find During the Pandemic – Final Thoughts
It might be awhile before things go back to ‘normal,’ but there’s a lot that women can do to keep their families moving forward through this pandemic. Whether that’s going back to school to improve career prospects or finding a remote job that maximizes flexibility, the key for women is focusing on what you can accomplish right now, not what you can’t.
Hopefully this article detailing new working opportunities women can find during the pandemic was useful and insightful. For more articles like this that can help women professionals, check out this section of the blog.
Have any additional tips? Be sure to leave a comment below.
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