pandemic on the scale of COVID-19 hurts everybody, but the damage it does isn’t always proportional.
If you’ve been watching the numbers, you may have noticed that men infected with COVID-19 are dying at a much higher rate than women. We don’t have scientifically proven answers for why yet, but the impacts of COVID-19 reach far beyond what it does to the human body. The United States is gripped by a bizarre debate over whether a life-saving quarantine is worth the economic damage as unemployment claims hit a decade-high mark. Millions worldwide have lost their sources of income. Students, many of whom do not have access to the internet, have been forced to take online classes or suspend schooling entirely. The infection may not discriminate, but our reaction to it does. In a world consumed by COVID-19, women will suffer the most.
Past epidemics provided important insights into gender-differentiated impacts from outbreaks and quarantines, but those lessons have been largely ignored. Research found that women’s income in the three countries most affected by the 2014 Ebola outbreak recovered much slower than men’s. This is no coincidence. Despite their ever-growing participation in the workforce, women remained burdened by the “second shift” upon returning home, taking on the majority of housework and childcare duties.
Women’s Economic Vulnerability
Because women are more frequently employed in part-time positions and the informal economy, they are more susceptible to losing their jobs in a pandemic. They are also more likely to voluntarily give up work to take care of children who are now confined to the house. In a world without public schools and daycares to watch them, one parent will have to stay home—and it’s almost always the mother.
Social attitudes toward women’s role in public spaces have progressed over the past century, with women being increasingly likely to be employed, hold political office, and obtain higher education. Despite this, a study recently released by Gallup revealed that even young opposite-sex couples prefer an arrangement in which the man works and the woman stays at home. As domestic responsibilities mount, women across the world are abandoning career ambitions to take care of the home. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently voiced concerns that the pandemic has the potential to erase 25 years of progress toward greater gender equality as women trade paid jobs for unpaid ones.
This trend poses an additional danger. Women’s role as domestic caretakers put them at higher risk of exposure to sick family members. Moreover, overextended healthcare services now have fewer resources to handle pregnant women even as COVID-19 is reported to cause premature birth. Under quarantine, a rise in home births is likely to result in more complications. In the U.S.—which has the highest maternal mortality rate of all developed nations—women of color are four times more likely to die from childbirth than Caucasian women, and that number is likely to get worse. In the developing world, the loss of health workers in rural areas—who are often women—will have consequences for years to come.
Women’s Educational Vulnerability
COVID-19 also jeopardizes the next generation of women. Sierra Leone closed schools nationwide for the 2014-2015 academic year in response to Ebola. When classes resumed, one out of every six school-aged girls in did not return to classes. Many chose to pursue a job rather than finish their education. Others had no choice—during the lockdown, teenage pregnancy rates increased by up to 65% in some communities, forcing girls to abandon their schooling in order to raise a child. These pregnancies often resulted from sexual violence or enforced prostitution after a breadwinning family member died. With medical and judicial infrastructure crippled by the quarantine, victimized women had little recourse. The global quarantine stemming from COVID-19—the impacts of which will last much longer than Ebola—will undoubtedly bring about more extreme consequences, especially as access to online education remains difficult for rural and impoverished communities. It is possible that an entire generation of girls in developing nations will not return to school after the pandemic is over.
The Pandemic and Domestic Violence
Even the home may not be a safe place for women. Confined with their abusers, victims of domestic violence—which disproportionately affects women—are in more danger than ever. Incidents of domestic violence in China have doubled since the outbreak began. Women who were once safe at work or school are now trapped indefinitely with their abusers as systems of support dissipate under the quarantine. In some nations, abuse shelters have even been temporarily transformed into makeshift hospitals, while those that remain are financially and administratively strained due to quarantine procedures. Many victims cannot take shelter with their parents after an incident out of fear that they will infect them. Furthermore, courts are mostly closed, meaning restraining orders are nearly impossible to obtain. While crisis lines and online resources remain available, their services are not necessarily be adequate for everyone.
Addressing Women’s Vulnerability in Pandemics
Sierra Leone retained a law banning pregnant girls from attending school after the Ebola outbreak despite the exponential rise in the number of teenage pregnancies. Such destructive policies must be abandoned in the post-COVID-19 world. We must acknowledge women’s unique vulnerabilities in the wake of pandemics and shape our institutions to counteract them. President Trump’s selection of only two women to serve on the twenty-two-member White House Coronavirus Task Force is a great example of exactly what we cannot do. Women—millions of whom are on the frontlines fighting the virus—should be represented in the bodies we develop to address it. Governments should prioritize universal paid leave and direct cash payments to adults so that victims of domestic violence can maintain financial independence from their abusers. Emergency funding should be provided to shelters to ensure that they remain in operation during an unprecedented crisis. Most of all, we must use this opportunity to address the pervasive gender-based inequality that COVID-19 has laid bare.
Women are not the only ones in danger from COVID-19. But as long as systematic inequalities exist on this planet, they will be amplified by times of crisis. Our responses must therefore be systematic, reconstructing places for people in the world and understanding the unique challenges they face.
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In a Quarantined World, Women Have the Most to Lose
May 22, 2020
A
pandemic on the scale of COVID-19 hurts everybody, but the damage it does isn’t always proportional.
If you’ve been watching the numbers, you may have noticed that men infected with COVID-19 are dying at a much higher rate than women. We don’t have scientifically proven answers for why yet, but the impacts of COVID-19 reach far beyond what it does to the human body. The United States is gripped by a bizarre debate over whether a life-saving quarantine is worth the economic damage as unemployment claims hit a decade-high mark. Millions worldwide have lost their sources of income. Students, many of whom do not have access to the internet, have been forced to take online classes or suspend schooling entirely. The infection may not discriminate, but our reaction to it does. In a world consumed by COVID-19, women will suffer the most.
Past epidemics provided important insights into gender-differentiated impacts from outbreaks and quarantines, but those lessons have been largely ignored. Research found that women’s income in the three countries most affected by the 2014 Ebola outbreak recovered much slower than men’s. This is no coincidence. Despite their ever-growing participation in the workforce, women remained burdened by the “second shift” upon returning home, taking on the majority of housework and childcare duties.
Women’s Economic Vulnerability
Because women are more frequently employed in part-time positions and the informal economy, they are more susceptible to losing their jobs in a pandemic. They are also more likely to voluntarily give up work to take care of children who are now confined to the house. In a world without public schools and daycares to watch them, one parent will have to stay home—and it’s almost always the mother.
Social attitudes toward women’s role in public spaces have progressed over the past century, with women being increasingly likely to be employed, hold political office, and obtain higher education. Despite this, a study recently released by Gallup revealed that even young opposite-sex couples prefer an arrangement in which the man works and the woman stays at home. As domestic responsibilities mount, women across the world are abandoning career ambitions to take care of the home. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently voiced concerns that the pandemic has the potential to erase 25 years of progress toward greater gender equality as women trade paid jobs for unpaid ones.
This trend poses an additional danger. Women’s role as domestic caretakers put them at higher risk of exposure to sick family members. Moreover, overextended healthcare services now have fewer resources to handle pregnant women even as COVID-19 is reported to cause premature birth. Under quarantine, a rise in home births is likely to result in more complications. In the U.S.—which has the highest maternal mortality rate of all developed nations—women of color are four times more likely to die from childbirth than Caucasian women, and that number is likely to get worse. In the developing world, the loss of health workers in rural areas—who are often women—will have consequences for years to come.
Women’s Educational Vulnerability
COVID-19 also jeopardizes the next generation of women. Sierra Leone closed schools nationwide for the 2014-2015 academic year in response to Ebola. When classes resumed, one out of every six school-aged girls in did not return to classes. Many chose to pursue a job rather than finish their education. Others had no choice—during the lockdown, teenage pregnancy rates increased by up to 65% in some communities, forcing girls to abandon their schooling in order to raise a child. These pregnancies often resulted from sexual violence or enforced prostitution after a breadwinning family member died. With medical and judicial infrastructure crippled by the quarantine, victimized women had little recourse. The global quarantine stemming from COVID-19—the impacts of which will last much longer than Ebola—will undoubtedly bring about more extreme consequences, especially as access to online education remains difficult for rural and impoverished communities. It is possible that an entire generation of girls in developing nations will not return to school after the pandemic is over.
The Pandemic and Domestic Violence
Even the home may not be a safe place for women. Confined with their abusers, victims of domestic violence—which disproportionately affects women—are in more danger than ever. Incidents of domestic violence in China have doubled since the outbreak began. Women who were once safe at work or school are now trapped indefinitely with their abusers as systems of support dissipate under the quarantine. In some nations, abuse shelters have even been temporarily transformed into makeshift hospitals, while those that remain are financially and administratively strained due to quarantine procedures. Many victims cannot take shelter with their parents after an incident out of fear that they will infect them. Furthermore, courts are mostly closed, meaning restraining orders are nearly impossible to obtain. While crisis lines and online resources remain available, their services are not necessarily be adequate for everyone.
Addressing Women’s Vulnerability in Pandemics
Sierra Leone retained a law banning pregnant girls from attending school after the Ebola outbreak despite the exponential rise in the number of teenage pregnancies. Such destructive policies must be abandoned in the post-COVID-19 world. We must acknowledge women’s unique vulnerabilities in the wake of pandemics and shape our institutions to counteract them. President Trump’s selection of only two women to serve on the twenty-two-member White House Coronavirus Task Force is a great example of exactly what we cannot do. Women—millions of whom are on the frontlines fighting the virus—should be represented in the bodies we develop to address it. Governments should prioritize universal paid leave and direct cash payments to adults so that victims of domestic violence can maintain financial independence from their abusers. Emergency funding should be provided to shelters to ensure that they remain in operation during an unprecedented crisis. Most of all, we must use this opportunity to address the pervasive gender-based inequality that COVID-19 has laid bare.
Women are not the only ones in danger from COVID-19. But as long as systematic inequalities exist on this planet, they will be amplified by times of crisis. Our responses must therefore be systematic, reconstructing places for people in the world and understanding the unique challenges they face.
