Gratitude to all women and girls around the world

Prof. (Dr.) Dharmakanta Kumbhakar

(drkdharmakanta1@gmail.com) 

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated our lives in an unprecedented way. It had not only impacted our health but also our personal lives, psychological well-being, social lives, and economic sustainability. One can assume that the pandemic didn’t discriminate against gender and equally affected the lives of men and women around the world, but this was simply not the case. Although everyone had been impacted by the pandemic, women and girls seemed to be shouldering the burden more than their male counterparts. New research has revealed that while men were affected more by the novel coronavirus than women, both in terms of contagion and mortality, women were especially affected more than men by the economic and social fallout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, the impacts of the pandemic were exacerbated for women and girls. The pandemic deepened the pre-existing inequalities between men and women, exposing vulnerability in personnel and social and economic systems, which in turn amplified the impacts of the pandemic.

Women make up about 70% of the workers in the health and social sector globally and constitute most health facility staff. They make up more than 85% of nursing personnel and healthcare workers and almost half of the doctors worldwide. Therefore, women were on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, which put them at a higher risk of exposure to the virus. They tended to have particularly close and prolonged contact with COVID-19 cases, which put them at heightened risk of infection by the novel coronavirus. Data shows that female health workers were infected by the virus at twice the rates of their male counterparts. The issue of inadequate and ill-fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) was likely to be a factor here, as most PPE kits were sized primarily for men in all countries. The health and well-being of female care workers must get priority. Women must have a role in decision-making, which is presently less in this sector, and then only the female care workers will get the facilities.

Women took on multiple responsibilities during the pandemic. The pandemic increased the duties of girls and young women, especially those who were caring for elderly and ill family members, as well as siblings who were out of school. The burden of unpaid care and domestic work exploded since the beginning of the pandemic, but women continued to shoulder the bulk of that work. Schools and daycare closures, along with the reduced availability of outside help, led to months of additional work for women. Mothers took on more childcare responsibilities during the pandemic than fathers. About 80% of mothers now say that they did most or all of the housework and homeschooling during the pandemic. The working mothers had to manage work from home along with childcare and online schooling responsibilities. Multiple responsibilities put several strains on the mental health of women. About 57% of mothers reported depression and anxiety, compared to only one-third of fathers during the pandemic. It’s a complex problem that’s going to take time to solve.

Global lockdowns during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic led to several women and girls being stuck at home with their perpetrators, and incidents and reports of violence against them had been on the rise globally. The National Commission of Women in India also reported a surge in the reported cases of violence during the pandemic in India. As per the WHO, the global lockdowns left women and girls vulnerable to domestic, physical, mental, and sexual violence as they had been cut off from social support and services. The violence against women resulted in injuries and serious physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health problems, including sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and unplanned pregnancies. Violence not only negatively impacts women but also their families, the community, and the nation at large. The local governments now must ensure accessibility and referral pathways to medical and psychosocial support and mental health services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence during that period.

The COVID-19 pandemic had major impacts on the health of girls and women. Restrictive social norms, gender stereotypes, home quarantining, and diversion of resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic limited women’s ability to access health services, as well as making them more susceptible to health risks. Women’s access to maternal and reproductive health services had been severely impacted due to the COVID-19 emergency response and global lockdowns. Efforts to contain the outbreak diverted resources from routine health services, including pre- and post-natal healthcare and contraceptives. The burden of food shortages during the lockdown period tended to fall more on women due to social norms where women ate last and least, which made women vulnerable to nutritional anaemia and malnutrition.

Emerging evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that women’s economic and productive lives have been affected disproportionately and differently from men. Across the globe, women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs, and are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. Women suffered more job losses than men under the COVID-19 lockdown, and their post-lockdown recovery had also been much lower. As per a report, about 11.5 million women lost their jobs compared to 9 million men during the pandemic globally. Some called it a’she-cession’. Urban women reported a substantial or total loss of income during the lockdown. Those employed as domestic workers were laid off in large numbers; many went back to their villages, and most didn’t return since they were not easily rehired. Even the women who managed to find jobs or re-established their trades as self-employed workers had not had an equivalent restoration of income. Poorer women with limited or no revival in earnings had to deplete their meagre savings. Many became indebted and forced to sell their limited assets, such as small animals, bits of jewellery, or even their tools of the trade, such as carts. The loss of assets seriously jeopardised their economic futures and raised the spectre of deepening poverty, even destitution. The local government must support these women economically to run their livelihoods and establish businesses for self-employed women.

Today (March 8), on the day of International Women Day, we express our gratitude to all the women and girls around the world for their tremendous contribution in shaping a more equal future and a faster recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.