LInda Nedelcoff of CUNA Mutual Group Merry Pateuk of PSCU

80% of employees worldwide who have left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic are women—and one in four women say they are considering downshifting or leaving the workforce going forward, according to Linda Nedelcoff, Executive Vice President, and Chief Strategy and Human Resources Officer for CUNA Mutual Group.

Nedelcoff shared those findings during a Thursday presentation to attendees of the Global Women’s Leadership Network’s 2020 Executive Readiness Summit. She noted mothers specifically, much more so than fathers, worry their job performance is being more heavily scrutinized during the pandemic.

“Too much work, too much housework—we worry our performance will be negatively judged due to caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic,” said Nedelcoff.

There are some silver linings

While the COVID-19 pandemic has presented major challenges to credit union women, it has also provided them with major opportunities that were not previously available, according to two executives with PSCU.

One of those opportunities is a greater ability to network across borders with other credit union women, due to the use of more virtual and online meetings like the Executive Readiness Summit.

Andrea Rusnak, Vice President of Industry Engagement at PSCU, said credit union women should be utilizing those virtual channels even when they aren’t participating in virtual events.

“Now we are in this environment for probably quite some more time. So, how are you leveraging that? Are you taking advantage of that to talk to more people?” asked Rusnak.

Merry Pateuk, Senior Vice President of Industry Engagement at PSCU, urged attendees to use this time to take care of their own financial health.

“Some of the COVID-lemonade we may be squeezing out of this awful time is the reminder to be attentive to our financial health and seek out resources to attain better outcomes,” said Pateuk.

Executive Readiness Summit sessions will continue through Friday afternoon. More than 130 credit union women and men from across the globe are attending this year’s Summit. 

The GWLN Executive Readiness Summit is an annual event that promotes the advancement of women by focusing on the industry’s “pipeline” problem where women start working in lower-level roles that do not lead directly to the executive suite. This unique platform dedicated to credit union women only will focus on critical competencies, networking, and expanding knowledge. The 2020 Executive Readiness Summit is sponsored by CO-OP Financial Services, CUNA Mutual Group, PSCU and eLeadership Academy.