How is the coronavirus affecting women? Part One

April 5, 2020 Lauren Foley

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

I have thankfully seen many articles and posts on how the coronavirus outbreak is a gendered pandemic or at least how it should be and how looking at it through a gendered lens is extremely important. We learned many lessons during the Ebola and Zika outbreaks about gender dynamics in crises and so, now with an unprecedented pandemic, it’s more important than ever to take those lessons and apply them. The take-home from these two previous crises seems to be that governments and national authorities etc. leaving structural gender inequalities out of their crisis responses further compounds inequalities.[i] In this post, I simply want to point out how the virus is affecting women during this time in ways that may not be affecting men. The following is a rundown of some of the issues that have cropped up since all of this began that we should all be mindful of:

Employment:

According to a comprehensive study done of 104 countries by the World Health Organisation just one year ago, women make up 70% of workers in the health and social sector.[ii] This can include everyone from doctors and nurses in hospitals to nurses and healthcare workers in nursing homes. Statistically, this literally makes women more susceptible to coming in contact with the virus. I’d also just like to point out that this current situation would be a good example to use to make the case for higher pay for female healthcare workers who, on average, earn 28% less than men.[iii] They are the ones deemed to be essential workers right now; where are are all those high powered male execs who get paid millions? Moreover, aside from healthcare workers, women are more likely than man to be unemployed and more women work in low paying, insecure and informal jobs than men.[iv] As the economy slows down due to the virus, they are more likely to be hit financially making them even more vulnerable.

Staying at Home:

Despite more women being in the labour market than ever before, women continue to be primarily responsible for household chores and care responsibilities for children or elderly parents, for example.[v] UN Women states that women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household and care work than men.[vi] Due to the virus, the entire family is at home. Children aren’t at school. Your partner is not at work. Do you think your husband who doesn’t contribute equally to the housework at regular times is going to start during a pandemic? I doubt it. There is bound to be an increase in cooking, washing and general caring and that brunt is going to fall on women. What’s more is that that is occurring regardless of whether that woman is now working from home or is a full-time stay-at-home mom. Can you imagine having to work a full-time job whilst having to teach your kids, cook them food, wash them, their clothes and the house? Something I read which I thought was really interesting and should be said more is that you’re not working from home right now; you’re at home trying to work during a pandemic. I think it’s really important for employers and employees themselves to be aware of this and take it as easy as they can. Furthermore, if all of this juggling becomes too much, it becomes a question of, well, who leaves their job to look after the kids? If the woman is paid less or works less hours, which she is statistically more likely to, it might ‘make sense’ for her to leave. And so, it’s not just about the societal expectation that women want to take on these caring roles and carry out household chores; it’s about structural inequalities that also make it more likely that these responsibilities will eventually fall on the woman. These are all issues in the regular world and become even more compounded during a global crisis.

Abortion:

Abortion is a major issue for women and pregnant people right now. Many countries where abortion is illegal which still force people to travel for terminations are obviously impacted as flights have essentially ceased and even if they could travel, hospitals and clinics are overrun with COVID-19 patients. This has become very apparent in Malta where there has been a spike in women seeking abortions and abortion advice amid the flight ban.[vii] Even access to abortion pills online has slowed down to measures to protect against the virus. Naturally, people have taken to other more dangerous methods to terminate pregnancies. Thankfully, in Ireland[viii] and England[ix], as an example, new temporary measures have been introduced for women and pregnant people to be able to take abortion pills at home (for pregnancies up to 12 and 10 weeks respectively) without the need for the in-person consultation with a doctor. It can be done over the phone or online. Personally, I find it interesting to note how they can introduce these measures now but why not have them all the time with the option for the in-person consultation if desired? It will be extremely interesting to see how services may change or be impacted by the virus long into the future. Northern Ireland, however, has not been so lucky during all of this. Abortion was decriminalised in the North in October 2019 but services have not yet been established and, as such, telemedical abortion care is not permitted. Those in need of a termination will have to resort to hopping on ferries to access care during a time when we are all being told to stay at home. There have been reports of women attempting to take their own life during this time.[x] There is an online petition to try get Minister of Health in Northern Ireland, Robin Swann, to implement telemedicine if you want to consider signing – it can be accessed here.[xi]

Domestic Violence:

Domestic violence has been a major issue during all of this. Obviously, people are being told to stay at home and this might involve staying home with an abusive partner. The current situation may lead to extra stress and tension leading to further abuse. And with restrictions in place, access to shelters and refuges are extremely limited. It’s also more difficult to ring domestic violence services as your partner may hear you in the home. Irish national charity, Women’s Aid, said it has heard from victims who are in a “heightened state of alert, trauma and anxiety because of the emergency”.[xii] Some abhorrent things that have happened since this began include Billy Joe Saunders, an English boxer, making a video showing men how to beat their partner if she starts acting up. He has since been suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control.[xiii] Malaysia’s Women’s Ministry also advised women not to nag their husbands and to wear make-up during the crisis to avoid trouble.[xiv] Thankfully, Irish police have implemented Operation Faoisimh (relief) to protect against domestic abuse during the crisis.[xv] They will be making calls to victims who have reported domestic abuse in the past to ascertain any existing issues of concern and to ensure the protection of families. Women’s Aid are also providing dedicated text or online chat services for deaf or hard of hearing victims.[xvi] France has reported a soar in cases since the crisis began and has implemented excellent measures to help such as paying for victims to stay in hotels and establishing about 20 pop-up counselling centres in supermarkets across the country so that women can access services while getting groceries.[xvii] Furthermore, both France and Spain have implemented a campaign whereby women can enter pharmacies and say the code word “mask 19” to alert those working that they are victims of domestic violence and that they need help.[xviii] Moreover, the previously established Silent Solution initiative is being promoted once more. This allows for those who need to ring the police on 999 but cannot speak let the person on the other side of the call know that they are in trouble. The process is slightly different for Ireland[xix] and the UK[xx] but will involve ringing 999, following any prompted instructions and either coughing, tapping the phone or keying in a certain number sequence (55 in the UK) to let the person know you need help. A list of national women’s helplines in 46 European countries can be accessed here.[xxi]

Sexual Violence:

Extremely similar to the above, the virus has made it more difficult for victims of past, recent or ongoing sexual abuse to access services. Many centres which may be a first port of call for someone have now closed. Centres that provide accompaniment services to those attending Sexual Assault Treatment Units or court may have ceased due to social distancing rules. Furthermore, many centres are also, naturally, struggling to raise funds right now to continue their much needed services. Thankfully, the vast majority can still be reached over the phone for either counselling or advice on what to do. In a, perhaps, twisted turn of events, it’s actually potentially safer for women to go outside at the moment due to the fact that many of the men who consistently stare, catcall, and sexually assault women on a regular basis might now be at home. However, it is well reported that you are more likely to know your attacker than for them to be a stranger and more likely that it would occur in a home and so, it is incredibly important to stay vigilant right now about the prevalence of sexual violence.[xxii] Furthermore, having said all this, it is important to remember that COVID-19 does not cause sexual or domestic violence. Abusers do. It is no one’s fault but the abuser’s and nothing you do causes or escalates the abuse. This is on them.

Online Abuse:

Even during normal times, women experience a severe amount more online abuse than men. In 2018, Amnesty International and Element AI released the largest ever study into online abuse against women. They calculated that 1.1 million abusive or problematic tweets were sent to the women in the study across the year – or one every 30 seconds on average – and that shockingly (*not*) women of colour were 34% more likely to be mentioned in abusive or problematic tweets than white women.[xxiii] During a time when more people are staying at home and on the internet more, particularly looking at the news, the potential for even more online abuse directed at women to occur is extremely high. Be mindful of your comments online, especially at a time of global stress and panic and do not take your frustrations out on women.

Politics:

Times like these are a stark reminder of the importance of having women in leadership positions in every country. We know that decisions and policies are better with a gender perspective. In fact, gender-blind decisions and policies are not only worse but also usually fail. More female representation in governments ensures that women’s voices are heard in policy making which is especially important right now when new policies are being implemented extremely quickly and may not be taking the above issues into consideration. The European Women’s Lobby has sent comprehensive letters to both President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel on what impact the crisis is having on women and girls and what the Commission and Council should be doing at the political level to ensure they don’t suffer even more disproportionately than usual during the crisis. UN Women has also made an excellent checklist of 10 questions we should all be asking our governments, municipalities, parliaments and other decision makers right now on their responses to the outbreak in terms of gender.[xxiv]

I hope I’ve been able to give you a sense of why it’s so important to look at this pandemic from the perspective of women and why gender-sensitive responses are urgently required so that the price of these current crises is not paid by women, especially the most marginalised. As with many issues that predominantly affect women, far too little data is collected on these issues to scientifically prove their existence. We saw this play out during the Zika and Ebola crises as only 1% of the publications on these outbreaks examined it from a gender perspective.[xxv] An important lesson to be learned from the Ebola crisis was the impact on gender: more girls than boys left school, domestic violence increased, in some areas the proportion of teenage pregnancies increased by 65% and also the mortality rate of women who gave birth rose.[xxvi] I really hope someone else doesn’t have to write a blog post about similar consequences of the coronavirus in five year’s time.

[i] https://academic.oup.com/ia/article-pdf/92/5/1041/13653510/inta12704.pdf

[ii] https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311314/WHO-HIS-HWF-Gender-WP1-2019.1-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&te=1&nl=in-her%20words&emc=edit_gn_20200312

[iii] https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311314/WHO-HIS-HWF-Gender-WP1-2019.1-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&te=1&nl=in-her%20words&emc=edit_gn_20200312

[iv] http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_457317.pdf

[v] http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_457317.pdf

[vi] https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/infographic/changingworldofwork/en/index.html

[vii] https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/spike-in-maltese-women-seeking-abortion-help-amid-flight-ban-uk.782582

[viii] https://www.imt.ie/uncategorised/telemedicine-abortion-consultations-permitted-health-minister-27-03-2020/

[ix] https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-52092131

[x] https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?e=%5BUNIQID%5D&u=a00ff07d38721028e7398b9f8&id=80b6a19c1a&fbclid=IwAR1S5f8UiFZ2-eQnzg9_s3MtdcXqwbyLVzr_b655Npux12LRKd0NkkhZom8

[xi] https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/allow-remote-abortion-provision-in-ni?fbclid=IwAR3RMfRoMPKZxO4UQ5JqF2L2VrZ43XsdpKc6Akfs5ZNoiWvv0nU4qarFfNk

[xii] https://www.thejournal.ie/operation-faoisimh-gardai-domestic-abuse-5063393-Apr2020/?utm_source=shortlink