 TITLE: Women and Credit 2021: How the Pandemic Affected Women’s Lives—and Finances CONTENT: Women's Finances in 2020: Opportunities and Challenges\n------------------------------------------------------\nThe pandemic has affected consumers in markedly different ways. While some lost jobs and paychecks, others benefited from slashed expenses amid steady income. The economic fallout from the pandemic has resulted in a split experience among consumers: About half of adults report that their financial situation is about the same as it was at the start of the pandemic, compared with 21% that say it's worse, according to a March 2021 Pew Research Center survey. Yet half of adults not in retirement say they will have more difficulty achieving their long-term financial goals as a result of the pandemic, according to the same survey.\nThis division in experience is true of both consumers in general and of women in particular, as we found in a February 2021 Experian survey of 347 adult women in the U.S. In our survey, 43% of women said their income stayed roughly the same between March 2020 and February 2021, and 21% said it increased. Additionally, 37% of women said their expenses stayed the same, and 1 in 5 said their expenses went down during the pandemic.\nBut women also experienced many challenges. Among survey respondents, 24% said they have less savings, 18% said they were unable to earn as much money because their industry was affected by the pandemic, and 17% said they have more debt. Of those who said their expenses rose during the pandemic, the most common categories of increased spending were groceries (35%), takeout and restaurant meals (34%) entertainment like movies and streaming services (21%) and utilities (21%).\nWomen have also dealt with specific concerns during the pandemic as a result of the caregiving and domestic work they are still more likely to take on than men. More women than men have left the workforce completely: 2.7 million women between March and September 2020, compared with 1.7 million men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.\nWomen may decide to quit working entirely to care for sick or aging parents, oversee remote schooling for their children, look after small children unable to go to daycare or manage the household. As a result, female participation in the workforce has not been this low since 1988, according to one NPR analysis. END