Women suffer with higher unemployment during COVID

As the COVID-19 pandemic has continually shown us, everyone will suffer under this novel virus in one way or another, but those who’ve already borne the burdens of inequality would suffer even more under the pandemic.

A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that women have been forced into unemployment at disproportionately higher rates than men, when the opposite has been true in previous recessions. The study argues that this is because women are concentrated in service fields like hospitality, restaurants and food service, and other service industries. This is coupled with the fact that women are still largely expected to take care of domestic and childcare duties, and with school and daycare closures, many women are prevented from working outside of the home. And, the pandemic is expected to create consequences for women for years to come.

Gender at Work is a transnational feminist organization working to end discrimination against women and build cultures of inclusion by working with activists and researchers to bring about new information on structures of inequality and discriminatory social norms. Sudarshana Kundu and Carol Miller are co-executive directors of Gender at Work, and both women took some time to discuss the obstacles women face with regard to unemployment during the pandemic, how gender stereotypes and social norms have contributed to this disparity, and the kind of responses they’d like to see from governments and the private sector to support women.

Q:

In “This Time It’s Different: The Role of Women’s Employment in a Pandemic Recession” by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the authors discuss why unemployment has hit women harder during the COVID-19 pandemic than men. When this report was released earlier this year, and subsequently reported on in the media, were the findings in the report surprising?

A:

The report is not surprising. We know that the current economic systems have created and perpetuated occupational and gendered division of labor. This gendered division of labor means that women tend to be in lower skilled, lower paid, less secure jobs, mostly in the informal sector (especially in developing countries).

In the current wave of unemployment, which was first caused by lockdown restrictions and then further worsened by low demand, the first jobs to go were those in which women were overrepresented. … These informal economy jobs were less secure and jobs that could not be performed in the safety of their homes. Added to this are the additional childcare responsibilities that women had to shoulder because of school closures. Even where women have been able to shift to working from home, as has been the case in many public sector jobs in developed countries, for example, women are still bearing higher responsibilities for their children’s dayto-day care and education, as well as care for elderly or other vulnerable family members.

Q:

The argument is that women are represented at much higher rates in employment sectors (like restaurants or hotels) that were more severely impacted by social distancing measures. And, that the increased need for childcare due to school and daycare closures have also contributed to this drop in employment. Can you talk a bit about some of the systemic and social issues that have helped create this disparity for women?

A:

Gender-based occupational segregation exists. Gender stereotypes and social norms dictate women’s choices and entry into different professions. Responsibilities for the care of dependents imposes significant constraints on women’s choice and ability to work. Women’s job opportunities are often restricted to those that have an aspect of caregiving, such as health workers, domestic workers, and within the hospitality/tourism industry. (American economist) Nancy Folbre classifies this as the care economy, and classified care work as any “work that involves connecting to other people, trying to help people meet their needs, things like the work of caring for children, caring for the elderly, caring for sick people or teaching is a form of caring labor,” and adds that caring labor can be paid or unpaid. For example, the United Nations’ International Labour Organization’s data indicates that across the world, women and girls are performing more than threefourths of the total amount of unpaid care work and two-thirds of care workers are women. Globally, 46 percent of the workforce in the tourism industry are women. In most countries, essential health workers are women. These are the jobs that have been hardest hit by COVID-19, either through retrenchment, or in the case of health care, putting women in the frontline of fighting the pandemic.

Historically, care work has been marginalized in economic theory and policy. This has two major implications. First, care work undertaken by women is not even recognized as “work” and therefore, remains largely non-remunerative. Second, care work is undervalued. This means that even when women are part of the formal labor force, they tend to be in low-paid caregiving types of jobs, which do not receive the same kind of policy attention and support, and very little legal protection and safety nets.

Q:

Can you help us understand what some of the potential long-term repercussions are of this higher unemployment rate for women during the pandemic? And how would you hope to see those repercussions addressed, in ways that correct some of these disparities for women? A:

In a shrinking economy, gender norms are likely to be reinforced with male partners getting preference to continue working, especially in developing economies . ... and the impact of women’s unemployment will have a ripple effect on the economy. The Mckinsey Institute estimates that if no action is taken to counter the deteriorating employment rates for women, the global GDP growth rate could be $1 trillion lower in 2030 than what it would be if women simply lost jobs at the same rate as men.

Unless we are able to massively upskill women to new areas of work, we fear that many women and girls will be permanently left out of the paid labor force. We have to ensure that the donor response, whether it be the government or the private sector, does not fall back on women’s role in the family, as repositories of savings, instead of acknowledging their potential to contribute to income generating activities. Governments have to put in place universal basic income schemes, ensure that women-led enterprises have access to loans/ cash, and put in special schemes/ investments to make sure that women are integrated into efforts at building back the economy.

lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com