The COVID pandemic has been extremely difficult for every one of us. It has tested our grit, resolve, faith, and simple humanity in ways we’ve never experienced before. Perhaps these kinds of tests have been felt the most when it comes to the ways in which we work and earn an income.
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The Pandemic Affected Women The Most
The pandemic has caused many shifts in our careers, from lost hours, to completely lost jobs, to changing from the corporate office to the home office; from among coworkers, to alone or among family members. Although we’ve all felt these changes in one way or another, one demographic who has been hit the hardest is women.
For starters, women are more likely to work in industries that have been most affected by lockdowns and layoffs, such as hospitality, food service, and in-store retail. Not only that, but women often bear the most weight when it comes to responsibilities at home. When children can’t go to school and we’re forced to work from home as well, it can be the most challenging for the women whose responsibility it is to care for those children. Zoom school and zoom work under the same roof create unique and extremely difficult challenges.
Some women have been lucky enough to maintain their pre-COVID jobs from home, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t felt additional burdens from the pandemic. Inflation alone could be enough of a reason to cause additional income to be a necessity.
eBay Is Empowering Women
Thankfully, there are definitely avenues for making an income, whether the need is due to lack of work or some other reason. Websites and apps like eBay have helped women to find new methods and to stay afloat, despite the hardships. In fact, 82% of women who have begun or increased selling on eBay since 2020, have done so due to hardships caused by the pandemic.
eBay empowers women by allowing them to build their own businesses from home, where they can sell to buyers all across the globe. In the first 6 months of the pandemic, the numbers of US based eBay businesses grew by 34% and US based sales grew by 38%. It’s certain that these increased numbers are, in no small part, coming from women, 69% of whom say that their eBay business has helped them during COVID. The flexibility, income, and freedom of being their own boss has given many women exactly what they need in this time of uncertainty and loss.
