Economic Impact of COVID 19 on Gender Equality

Abstract

The concerned paper intends to highlight the economic impact COVID-19 has had on gender equality. It identifies the key factors driving the change, drawing lessons from past crises. The paper also covers policy steps that can be considered to alleviate the economic impact and estimate the long-term economic consequences of pursuing or delaying action in this area. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a severe economic fallout globally. The impact has however been felt by women disproportionately as compared to men. As a result, the historically uneven progress towards gender parity is likely to be set back further. Female job loss rates due to COVID-19 are estimated to be significantly higher than male job loss rates globally, underpinned by a number of factors. The gendered nature of work across industries means that women hold a comparatively larger proportion of jobs in industries most affected by the pandemic. Across the world, women bear most of the burden of unpaid care and when Covid-19 significantly increased the time required for family responsibilities, women dropped out of the workforce at a higher rate. Organisational and family attitudes on who has the first right to keep scarce jobs is another factor. As the labour market gets further disrupted due to digitisation and automation accelerated by Covid-19, it is likely to pose another challenge due to the under-representation of women in the ‘jobs of the future’. Past crises indicate that the status of women is undermined in the crisis years as well as several years thereafter. Unless policy actions are immediately taken there is likely to be a significant long-term impact on global GDP as well as the labour force participation rate for women.