Mary Anne Lowe sounds surprisingly stoic as she describes the hellscape into which her Warrandyte wedding reception business descended during the pandemic.
Ms Lowe is one of the increasing number of Victorian women whose businesses have been disrupted by the second wave, a phenomenonMen's businesses were hit worse than women's in Victoria's first wave but in the second this reversed: female-owned businesses affected rose from 7 to 9 per cent as men's began to recover, dropping from 13 to 10 per cent.
More women are anxious "most or all of the time" than men, their sleep and health is worse affected and they fear more for the ability to fund their retirement than both Victorian men and women and men in other states. Compared with a year ago, 14 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men were "much more worried" they would not have the skills for the future of work.
Grattan Institute chief executive Danielle Wood said the pandemic had opened up "fault lines that were clearly already there in society". Women in families who could no longer afford childcare due to the loss or reduction of the second income, usually the mother's, may struggle to reconnect to the workforce.
Reading The Age's negative agenda articles must have them almost ready to neck themselves🙄 Surprisingly stoic? Or perhaps just normal and capable. 'The Worsening of Australian Women's Experiences Under Covid-19' isn't a study, it's a gloomers fishing expedition.
That’s not even possible given any restrictions come into effect after midnight and usually the next day.
Family funerals are even more crushing.