Women and the weight of a pandemic: A survey of four Western US states early in the Coronavirus outbreak

Abstract

In the initial months of the COVID‐19 outbreak in the United States, people struggled to adjust to the new normal. The burden of managing changes to home and work life seemed to fall disproportionately to women due to the nature of women's employment and gendered societal pressures. We surveyed residents of four western states in the first months of the outbreak to compare the experiences of women and men during this time. We found that women were disproportionately vulnerable to workplace disruptions, negative impacts on daily life, and increased mental load. Women with children and women who lost their jobs were particularly impacted. These results contribute to the growing body of findings about the disproportionate impacts of crises on women and should inform organizational and government policies to help mitigate these impacts and to enhance societal resilience in future emergencies.

Adapting Service Delivery during COVID-19: Experiences of Domestic Violence Practitioners

“…COVID-19 rapidly affected all aspects of social and economic life, generating new needs and risks and exacerbating inequalities. Evidence quickly accumulated showing the pandemic’s gendered impacts, including women’s increased domestic responsibility and mental load, escalation of violence against women at home, increased complexity of women’s needs, rising service demand and barriers to service use ( Alon et al , 2020 ; Kaukinen, 2020 ; Mahase, 2020 ; Raile et al 2020 ; Sharma and Borah, 2020 ; Speed et al , 2020 ; Usher et al , 2020 ). Even in Australia and New Zealand, where infections were comparatively low, public health measures, including temporary closures of businesses and schools and directives to stay home, hugely impacted individuals and families, and the service systems that support them.…”

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Working Mothers: A Phenomenological Study

“…The findings in this study expand the working mother literature by illustrating the experiences of working mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study results highlight that pre-pandemic challenges for working mothers were exacerbated by the worldwide health crisis (Calarco et al, 2020;Collins et al, 2021;Lyttelton, 2020;Raile et al, 2020). And participants provided poignant examples of how the burden of managing the pandemic's impact on work and family life has fallen disproportionately on mothers (Raile et al, 2020).…”

“…Emerging research indicates that working mothers in the United States are a demographic significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (Alon et al, 2020;Collins et al, 2021;Heggeness & Fields, 2020;Raile et al, 2020). Prior to this crisis, women comprised approximately 50% of the labor force; and the participation rate for women with children under 18 was 72.3% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020).…”

Mujeres, trabajo doméstico y covid-19: explorando el incremento en la desigualdad de género causada por la covid-19

“…Este estudio es sólo un ejemplo de la investigación que se está haciendo sobre este tema. Recientemente, se ha publicado una cantidad sustancial de estudios e investigación sobre los impactos de la desigualdad de género causados por la COVID-19 en diferentes países como Sudáfrica (Parry & Gordon, 2021), Estados Unidos (Bahn et al, 2020;Raile et al, 2020), Israel (Kristal & Yaish, 2020), Alemania, (Czymara et al, 2021;Power, 2020), el Reino Unido (Fisher & Ryan, 2021;Oreffice & Quintana-Domeque, 2021;Xue & McMunn, 2021), España (Farre et al, 2020), Europa (Cook & Grimshaw, 2021), Vietnam (Dang & Viet Nguyen, 2021), y México (Amilpas García, 2020Manrique De Lara & De Jesús Medina Arellano, 2020). Sin embargo, se debe fomentar más investigación en este rubro, especialmente en México.…”