COVID-19 comment: Women to bear brunt of new working patterns
23 March 2020
Professor Marina Della Giusta, from the Department of Economics at the University of Reading, said:
"As school closures, closure of many service businesses and social isolation and outright complete isolation get going in the U.K. we can expect to see similar gendered effects to those already documented in the countries ahead of us in the Covid-19 curve such as Italy. These are driven by the fact that women although apparently less susceptible to die from the virus itself, are more vulnerable in both employment and in the household.
"While the government is throwing increasing resources at the health sector to face the crisis and at the economy to keep it going, it doesn’t seem to yet think of the fact that women and men are going to be differently impacted by this crisis.
"Things we will have to watch for include an increase in unemployment particularly among women as they especially work in zero hours contracts and low skill services such as shopping assistants, cashiers, in the reception and tourism sector, in cleaning services, beauty salons and hairdressers.
"There will also be a strong productivity drag on women with younger children who will find in the majority of cases juggling childcare and/or home schooling and distance working although there it's appropriate, school support for key workers should help alleviate that. On top of this, there is likely to be a strong physical and mental health effect in the long run on frontline key workers (carers, nurses, doctors) the majority of whom are women.
"Finally, and most worryingly, it is almost certainly likely that there will be an increase in domestic tensions and domestic violence. NGOs in both China and Italy report that they are finding it harder to reach out to vulnerable women and children who are now exposed to violent partners and fathers 24/7."