Female Labor Force Participation under COVID-19 Pandemic:Evidence from the first round of the Uganda High-frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19

Abstract

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease has taken the world by storm, given the containment measures better known as the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), including strict or mild lockdowns and social distancing measures. The impact of these aggregated measures have caused not only loss of lives but also financial, economic, social and even political unrest around the world and Uganda has not been spared either, given its weak economic and health care system (UBOS 2020). This study thus was designed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures and its associated self-reported threat on the female labor force participation (FLFP) in Uganda following the March 20th 2020 shutdown of the economy by the government. The interest in women in this study stems from the fact that despite economic activity shutdown, women’s work and roles extend beyond their office space to their home. Therefore using the first round of the Uganda High-Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19 (UHFS) dataset conducted by Uganda Bureau of Statistic (UBOS) following the lockdown measure, our results indicates a 17% reduction in FLFP in the early days of the economic shutdown. We further find larger impacts of lockdown on female labor force participation in extreme cases where both partners are under locked down. These impacts are more pronounced among women with children as opposed to those without children. Conversely our results indicates larger impacts of lockdown among those with initial conditions of unemployment prior to the outbreak than those who were employed in time following the pandemic outbreak. We see our results as being consistent with the famous household labor theories. Our results point to the need for preferential treatment for women to encourage and enhance their labor market participation in times of pandemic. Lastly social programs targeting particularly women should be designed and implemented under the ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development.

The Informal Sector Facing COVID-19: The Case of Cameroon

“…For example, ref. [21] supports the phenomenon in Uganda, ref. [12] advocates for South Africa, and [23] studies the case of Zimbabwe.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many African countries to take drastic measures to reduce its spread and impact. Among these measures, we distinguish measures of confinement, strict or light lockdowns, and social distancing measures [20][21][22][23]. These measures are unprecedented and are the subject of many case studies.…”

“…However, ref. [21] established that stopping or suspending economic activity did not reduce women's work. It extended it to the home.…”

The macroeconomic implications of disease pandemics in developing countries: An application of Covid‐19 in Uganda

“…Using data from the Uganda High‐frequency Phone Survey on Covid‐19, conducted in June 2020, a study found that 45% of adult men and 49% of adult women did not work in the week preceding the survey, due to Covid‐19 restrictions (James et al, 2020 ). Additionally, a research team that was studying the economic status of households in 21 parishes from two rural districts in Western Uganda, prior to the Covid‐19 lockdown, conducted a follow‐up survey in May 2020 to establish the impact of the lockdown on economic outcomes and wellbeing (Mahmuda & Riley, 2021 ).…”