- More women affected because they work in the service sector.
'The three women — who spoke to The Post at length and whose stories are presented below in their own words — are among the millions who lost jobs globally, according to estimates by the International Labor Organization (ILO) that show women’s employment declined by 54 million, or 4.2 percent, in 2020 compared with 3 percent for men.' '“What the data are telling us is that it could take a generation longer to get to equality,” said Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the World Economic Forum.'
In Peru, 'The country went into strict lockdown in mid-March 2020, and by the end of June 2020, labor force participation rates had fallen 20 percentage points among men and 25 points among women, data from the ILO shows.'
'Lima, the capital, has been hit hard. The number of women in the workforce initially fell by 55 percent in the city and had not returned to pre-pandemic rates by March of this year, according to the Peruvian census agency.'
2. Fewer women were employed than men in the 55 countries surveyed before the pandemic; in some countries the impact of the pandemic was severe (in Peru, from 67% to 41%!). This is mainly because of 1 (the woman from Thailand, Pimonrat Sriprapat, was a tour guide, and now is living on her savings and then will have to turn to her mum); but also...
3. Women are of course often care-givers too, including, in the case of the woman from Peru who was interviewed, Claudia Huapaya, caring for the sick or paying for their care in private hospitals, as state-paid care is worse than hopeless, as she says (she had her own business before the pandemic which she started from nothing & has now lost):
'My husband is a driver, a taxi driver, of his own vehicle, and overnight, he couldn’t go out.
'My mother had covid. I had to look out for her, because I am the oldest daughter, and to pay her costs.
'My father was also sick, and as result, with my father’s sickness, my husband also fell ill with covid. We also had to have him treated privately because here, if you go to the state, you die.'
…
'My second daughter, I can’t give her anything right now. I feel like a failure — a failure is what I feel for not being able to give her the support and the help that she wants.'
'My mother had covid. I had to look out for her, because I am the oldest daughter, and to pay her costs.
'My father was also sick, and as result, with my father’s sickness, my husband also fell ill with covid. We also had to have him treated privately because here, if you go to the state, you die.'
The woman from France, Andrea Watkins, is (no surprise best off):
'I was working for a company that develops software to manage data on ICUs and was the office manager for France. I used to work in a very nice place here in Paris.'
She emphasises that:
'The main thing for us women is, well, it’s already difficult for us on the job market. It was difficult for us because most of us, we had kids at home. If you’re working at home, and you have small kids, how in the world can you just concentrate in a meeting if you have a baby around? It’s sort of impossible.'
She's now got training:
'It’s part of a program that is called Paris Code, to introduce women to coding and technology because it is a man’s world. So, there’s this program and they have a lot of classes and a lot of schools. And this program is particularly for women over 40.'
The only "off" note was this:
'Martina Bisello, a research manager at the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
But
gender-specific social spending is needed to ensure that recent gains are not lost, she said. “To make sure we are moving in the right direction, the
gender element has to be part of the plan.'