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.

Statistics Indonesia’s National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas) data released in February 2021 discovered that Indonesia’s female labor force participation stood at only 54.03 percent, as against 82.14 percent for men. Women are also engaged mostly in the informal sector, which gives them no social benefits and protection against rights violations.

This situation is really concerning because women, accounting for half of the population, define the success of developments.

Dubbed one of the world’s largest surveys on gender equality, the survey was aimed at helping policymakers, businesses and nonprofits know best how to address societal challenges caused by COVID-19.

Tara Patricia Cookson, professor of gender and development at the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, said decent employment was obviously important for all people to meet their needs and those of their family members and other dependents. Citing UN Women’s latest "Progress of the World’s Women" report, she said women’s access to their own income was critically important from a gender equality perspective.

“It enables them to have greater agency and control over their own lives, including helping them leave violent relationships, should they find themselves in one,” the Ladysmith cofounder told The Jakarta Post on Dec. 11.

She said it was critical for governments to build social protection systems that could keep people from falling into poverty, hunger and ill-health. Cash transfers are among the social safety net schemes. But there should be investments in place to safely reopen schools and social services that support care-giving, such as daycare centers and elder care homes, so that women could return to the paid workforce, she said.

“There needs to be a norms change within households too. Caregiving isn’t just a job for women. It’s a job men can and should do too, with pride,” said Cookson.

It is good to hear the government’s commitment to empowering women and strengthening micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in its post-pandemic recovery. Speaking at the Group of 20 Leaders’ Side Event on Women’s Empowerment on Oct. 30, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said the G20 must continue to push for the strengthening of the roles of MSMEs and women through concrete actions.

For Indonesia, financial inclusion is a priority in this regard. Indonesia’s financial inclusion index stood at 81 percent in 2020 and Jokowi has vowed to increase the rate to 90 percent by 2024.

To achieve this target, the government aims to continuously strengthen MSME-friendly financing schemes and provide micro and small ventures with greater access to financing. So far, Indonesia has allocated US$17.8 billion to its micro credit program (KUR) and more than 2.4 million female entrepreneurs have received this assistance.

Indonesia has also earmarked $1.1 billion for the Productive Micro Business Program, in which 63.5 percent of the assistance went to female entrepreneurs. For micro and ultra-micro female entrepreneurs, the government has set up a women-based finance lending scheme called Mekaar. As of today, more than 10.4 million ultra-micro female entrepreneurs have benefited from Mekaar, which has disbursed a total $1.48 billion in financing with a very low nonperforming loans (NPL) ratio of only 0.1 percent.

Last but not least, the creation of a digital ecosystem has given female entrepreneurs hope to survive the pandemic. As of today, 8.4 million MSMEs – 54 percent of which are female entrepreneurs – have entered e-commerce, which has become the prime driver of Indonesia’s economy with a transaction value of $24.8 billion this year and propped up 61 percent of the national economy. As 64 percent of more than 65 million MSMEs in Indonesia are women, small businesses certainly are effective tools to empower women.

Different governments may choose different intervention policies to help the people emerge from a crisis. But this pandemic clearly has taught us an important lesson that any policy-making process should use a gender perspective. Every humanitarian crisis has disproportionately affected women, deteriorating their health and well-being and triggering rampant gender-based violence.

We can no longer let this happen.

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The writer is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.