A compilation of policy analyses by the Women’s Budget Group on the economic impact of COVID-19 on women in the UK.
Women’s Budget Group. (n.d). COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting food and nutrition security through economic and social systems shocks, food system disruptions and gaps in coverage of essential health and nutrition services. Food systems in low- and middle-income countries must adapt and strengthen food and nutrition security in the wake of COVID-19…
Carducci, B., Keats, E. C., Ruel, M., Haddad, L., Osendarp, S. J. M., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2021). Food systems, diets and nutrition in the wake of COVID-19. Nature Food, 2(2), 68-70.
This paper analyses the potential contribution of social protection to a gender-transformative economic recovery over the medium term, defined as running from the present to the end of 2022. It builds on the existing Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 Expert (SPACE) advice publication; SPACE Social Protection in the COVID-19 Recovery: Opportunities and Challenges. Over the next two years (2021-2), economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis will be a key focus for governments and international organisations. Although taking place under challenging circumstances, including that of the climate crisis, this moment presents an important opportunity to design economic recovery plans that take into consideration the specific impacts of the crisis on women and put in place measures to support women in re-establishing economic security. This piece is intended as a tool for evidence-based, inclusive policy responses, and to equip gender equality and social protection actors to better advocate for a gender-transformative recovery.
Alfers, L., Holmes, R., McCrum, C., & Quarterman, L. (2021). Gender and Social Protection in the COVID-19 Economic Recovery: Opportunities and Challenges. Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 Expert Advice Service (SPACE), DAI Global UK Ltd.
Key Messages:
Holmes, R., & Hunt, A. (2021). Have social protection responses to Covid-19 undermined or supported gender equality? Emerging lessons from a gender perspective. ODI.
The podcast series draws on findings from a research programme called Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA), a multi-country research initiative hosted by the Institute of Development Studies in the UK. The podcasts in this series will explore areas of women’s collective action, changing civic spaces, and donor programmes to support empowerment and accountability.
What does social protection mean? Do we have any effective policies to help the most vulnerable? What do these policies look like in Pakistan’s fragile economic landscape further impacted by Covid-19?
Collective for Social Science Research. (2021). How does the State plan to protect its poor?
The UK government’s furlough scheme may not be doing enough to address the economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis on women, according to new analysis.
The research, by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, looked at experiences of furlough during the early months of the pandemic, between April and July 2020. It found:
Jones, L., & Cook, R. (2021). Does furlough work for women? Gendered experiences of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in the UK. Global Institute for Women’s Leadership.
Materials crowd-sourced from the FinEquity community on the issue of women’s financial resiliency as it relates to COVID-19 (or other serious crises).
FinDev Gateway. (2020). Women’s financial resiliency as it relates to COVID-19.
This article aims to explore policy responses to the early phase of the COVID-19 crisis, with a particular focus on disparate outcomes for international migrant domestic workers (MDWs). Through an analysis of interviews conducted with health and humanitarian organizations and experts in key migration corridors, it surfaces the central role that MDWs play in social provisioning and in mediating care responsibilities between the state and the family, particularly during lockdown and shelter-in place orders, and calls attention to the essential but excluded nature of migrant labor. The study investigates how states’ responses to COVID-19 intersected with existing institutions of social provisioning and immigration laws, and with claims-making by MDWs to shape the impact of this crisis upon the well-being of these workers. It emphasizes that understanding what is happening to migrant care workers can help rebuild stronger, more effective social protection systems after the crisis.
Highlights
Migrant domestic workers (MDWs) perform labor essential for social protection systems.
The COVID-19 crisis revealed their exclusion from those social protection systems.
Stronger pre-crisis social protection systems were more inclusive of MDWs.
Countries of origin largely failed to advocate for these workers during the crisis.
Claims-making by worker organizations emerged as workers’ main source of support.
Greater social protection for MDWs is a public health and human rights imperative.
Rao, S., Gammage, S., Arnold, J., & Anderson, E. (2021). Human Mobility, COVID-19, and Policy Responses: The Rights and Claims-Making of Migrant Domestic Workers. Feminist Economics, 1-17.
This paper examines the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chinese migrants who had returned to their hometowns for the Spring Festival before the Wuhan lockdown, using data from a recent nationally representative survey. The study finds that women migrants were less likely than men migrants to return to the cities and also less likely to return to paid work after the pandemic outbreak. It also finds that having a preschool-age child had a strong negative effect on women migrants’ employment decisions, but it had no effect on men migrants’ decisions. These results expand the literature on the economic vulnerabilities of Chinese migrant workers. More importantly,~the findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a setback in the~progress made in pre-pandemic times in advancing Chinese rural women’s position in the labor market.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic had negative employment consequences for Chinese migrant workers.
Women migrants were the hardest hit and more likely to withdraw from migration flows and paid work.
Women’s caregiving roles and employment in face-to-face services are the main causes of their withdrawal.
The pandemic has reinforced traditional gender roles and heightened labor market inequalities.
Yueping, S., Hantao, W., Xiao-yuan, D., & Zhili, W. (2020). To Return or Stay? The Gendered Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Migrant Workers in China. Feminist Economics, 1-18.
India implemented one of the world’s most stringent lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This study examines whether the impacts of the lockdown on employment differed by gender in areas surrounding Delhi. An ongoing monthly employment survey between March 2019 and May 2020 allows for comparison before and after lockdown. Estimates based on random-effects logistic regression models show that for men, the predicted probability of employment declined from 0.88 to 0.57, while for women it fell from 0.34 to 0.22. Women’s concentration in self-employment may be one reason why their employment was somewhat protected. However, when looking only at wage workers, the study finds that women experienced greater job losses than men with predicted probability of employment declining by 72 percent for women compared to 40 percent for men. The findings highlight the gendered impacts of macro crises and inform policy considerations through ongoing phases of lockdowns and relaxation.
Highlights
Ongoing survey data reveals gendered changes in employment before and during India’s pandemic lockdown.
Results show substantial decline in employment for men and women during the lockdown period.
Absolute decline in employment was larger for men than for women.
However, broad comparisons mask gender differences in impact on different industries and occupations.
Comparing only wage workers, employment decline was far greater for women than for men.
Desai, S., Deshmukh, N., & Pramanik, S. (2021). Precarity in a Time of Uncertainty: Gendered Employment Patterns during the Covid-19 Lockdown in India. Feminist Economics, 1-21.
