“I was facilitating everybody else’s life. And mine had just ground to a halt”: the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on women in the UK

Abstract

A growing body of research has highlighted the disproportionately negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women globally. This paper contributes to this work by interrogating the lived realities of 64 women in the UK through semi-structured interviews, undertaken during the first and second periods of lockdown associated with COVID-19 in 2020. Categorising the data by theme and type of gendered disadvantage, this paper explores the normative and policy-imposed constraints experienced by women in 2020, highlighting the role that government can and should proactively play in attending to gender inequalities throughout its COVID-19 response.

Why we Need a Gender Advisor on SAGE

“…SAGE do appear to be acutely aware of the equity aspects of their recommendations, as well as the broader consequences of policy advice [43] stating 'it is vital to measure the impacts of these interventions (beyond disease surveillance) where possible' [12]. Yet this has predominantly referred to ethnic or socio-economic inequalities, for example: 'there is some evidence that poorer people are engaging in more social contacts outside the home' [28] and 'there is likely to be an interplay of social, economic, biological, and pre-pandemic health risk that vary across [ethnic] groups' [59].…”

“…It therefore appears that gender considerations have been missing. Given that there is growing evidence attesting to the fact that COVID-19 has a disproportionate effect on women, this is a significant concern [12,45,46]. This reflects a broader concern, which is what disciplines and types of evidence are deemed worthy of SAGE's concern.…”

“…As well as failing to introduce policies to assist women, the government decided to suspend gender pay gap reporting in March 2020 [57], suggesting that companies didn't need to do this whilst they were managing the changes as a consequence of COVID-19. We now know, however, that gender pay gaps were a key determinant of women absorbing the domestic costs associated with lockdown and school closures [12]. We also don't know whether, were SAGE to include gender informed advice, the government would listen and engage with it.…”

“…As a consequence, they suggested that efforts may be needed to ' enable members of the public to engage sustainably with infection control behaviour'. There was no analysis, once again, as to whom was most affected by mental health concerns during lockdown (women) or for what reasons (typically the paid and unpaid care burden) [12]. The impact on health workers was noted, however: 'previous pandemics and early signals from COVID-19 indicate significant increases in burnout and distress among front line staff' [42].…”

“…What's more, women also appear to have absorbed much of the non-developmental work in the household (what needs to happen to keep everyone alive-cooking, cleaning, washing), compared to the developmental care (such as playing games or learning with children), compounding household bargaining disparities [11]. Women tend to assume these social roles for three main reasons: firstly, social gender norms that continue to prevail in UK society mean women typically assume more domestic labour within dual parent households; secondly, the gender pay-gap dictates that when parents are making decisions as to which parent remains working in paid employment and which parent reduces paid employment to assist with their children's care, it tends to be the higher earner-most often the man-who continues to work [12]; and finally, women have disproportionately been furloughed or made redundant during the pandemic [9], meaning that they are available to take on the additional unpaid labour. This latter instance is due to the interaction between the sectors of the economy that have been shut down by government order and highly feminised employment patterns [13].…”