Author: Anthony Daher

By: Anthony Daher

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unbalanced impact on women in several ways. Not only did many women put themselves and their loved one’s home at risk due to working on the frontlines during the initial wave as essential workers, but many women also had to take on completely new duties in comparison to men during these times. The responsibilities involved homeschooling and caregiving obligations which only added more burdens which interrupted their work, in some cases resulting with women leaving the workforce entirely. Imbalances that were already prominent prior to the pandemic were only amplified where we saw a much larger share of women, specifically those of color and who are low-income, needing to quit their jobs, along with taking on additional caregiving responsibilities and household duties. A survey in the United States informed 54% of black women were either laid off, discharged from their work temporarily, or received pay cuts while only 27% of white men faced the same issues. As many schools and business were re-opening, burdens were still placed, as childcare was still required from parents, restricting the ability of many mothers to work the same amount as they were before the pandemic. For example, some women may have been dealing with a COVID-related illnesses for themselves or family members, some still may have had to manage additional childcare responsibilities, and some were dealing with a major toll on their mental health. In another sample, examining the responsibility of home-schooling and house-hold duties, we saw 10% of women leave their job, compared to 2% of men leave their job. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, some jobs may not be no longer available for women, some lost income due to scaling back their workload, causing many women to miss out on potential career development opportunities. However not all hope was lost as policies such as the child tax credit and paid leave in the enacted federal stimulus bill supported women in taking care of their families, as they received much needed health care which helped balance the responsibilities of their family and their work during the peak of the pandemic. 

A possible policy implication, aimed to fix the gender inequality in the workspace would be to apply guidelines that regulate the percentage of people in each sex that can be laid off. For example, if there we 6 employees to be laid off, of those 6, must be 3 men and 3 must be women. However, if there was a case where 7 people were to be laid off, either 3 men and 4 women would be laid off, or 4 men and 3 women would be laid off, opposed to laying off 6 women and 1 man. This will help combat the disproportion of more women losing their jobs due to covid.

The most detrimental consequence women would face without intervention in my opinion would be the loss in their career advancement opportunities due to taking on the burdens that took place at home. In the study mentioned above, compared to the 2% of men who left their job to help at home, we saw a much greater 10% of women leave their job. If paid leave and child tax credit was not included in the federal stimulus bill, I believe the numbers shown in the statistic above would double. Since the goal is to terminate the gender imbalance which was heightened to new levels, women and men must be given equal opportunities to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While many would say the pandemic highlighted the gender inequality comprised within the workforce and at home, I composed a couple of questions to help test this hypothesis. In my first question, when referring to the women who believe they are dealing with all the childcare and house-hold duties, do you think the husbands think they are helping or are even taking this into consideration? In my next question, I wondered what would happen if the roles comprised within the household duties switched? If more men than women lost their jobs and were required to play a much greater role in household duties and childcare, how would they react? I believe these are the types of questions men do not wish to answer and keep the gender imbalance consistent and under the covers.  

Since both of my parents are surgeons, due to my mother owning a private practice, only my father was considered a frontline worker. This meant my mother’s practice was temporarily closed while my father had gone to work every day. Because of the stimulus received, a lot of stress was taken off my mother’s shoulders as she thought she would endure a long period of time without making money. Since she owned her practice, there never was a fear of losing her job. Personally, I believe my family was very lucky during this time our case was extremely unlikely with other families.

Infographic

Sources

Power, K. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 16(1), 67-73.

O’Sullivan, K., Rock, N., Burke, L., Boyle, N., Joksimovic, N., Foley, H., & Clark, S. (2022). Gender differences in the psychosocial functioning of parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carlson, D. L., Petts, R., & Pepin, J. R. (2020, May 6). Changes in Parents’ Domestic Labor During the COVID-19 Pandemic.