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Fight against COVID-19 should take gender equality into account
Although the salary gap between women and men is reportedly shrinking, we certainly cannot turn a blind eye to women’s heavier burden of unpaid care and domestic work during the pandemic.
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Poverty trap: Women from Golomedi village in East Manggarai regency in East Nusa Tenggara carry firewood on their way back home on April 30. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased poverty rates, but the health crisis has hit rural areas harder than urban areas. (JP/Markus Makur)
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s more COVID-19 variants emerge, public health measures remain the top concern of countries worldwide in their attempt to curb the spread of the virus. Restricted human mobility continues, but unfortunately women in particular are adversely affected.
Not only must women deal with income loss and disrupted services caused by the restrictions. They also have to devote more time to domestic chores and family care. The problem is, they lack social protection benefits and care services, and the double burden will only increase their vulnerability to physical and mental illnesses.
A survey recently commissioned by Meta, UNICEF, the World Bank, CARE and Ladysmith painted a grim picture of COVID-19’s prolonged impact on gender disparities in home and the workplace. Involving more than 96,000 respondents from across 200 geographies, the Survey on Gender Equality at Home found that in East Asia and the Pacific the pandemic had had a strong impact on employment, with 52 percent of women reporting that their job or income had been impacted by COVID-19.
In Indonesia, more than 60 percent of women said COVID-19 had affected their jobs and income, according to the survey, which was released on Nov. 19. They spent more time on domestic tasks and family care responsibilities. More than 70 percent of them also said that during the last 30 days, there was a time when they worried about insufficient food to eat due to a lack of money or other resources.
Although the salary gap between women and men is reportedly shrinking, we certainly cannot turn a blind eye to women’s heavier burden of unpaid care and domestic work during the pandemic. As over 60 percent of women have reported the pandemic’s impact on their employment, the government’s measures to bring people back to work should no longer be considered an economic recovery effort only but also a gender equality issue.
Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Bintang Puspayoga says COVID-19 has exacerbated gender inequalities in the country, due to the double burden.
“This has forced women to reduce their paid productive hours despite a deteriorating economic crisis,” said Bintang during a recent webinar titled “Women Empowering Women in Pandemic Situation: Indonesia’s Experience” in Jakarta.
