Impact of Lockdowns on Women During Covid 19 Crises: A Critical Review of Literature (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Gender Studies, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic and the strategies implemented to deal with it have had economic and societal repercussions all over the world. In India, a nationwide lockdown was initiated on 25 March 2020 which continued in a diluted form as we were conducting the interviews for the paper in July 2020. The lockdown brought activities outside the home to a standstill and people were expected to stay indoors in order to ensure social distancing and break the chain of infection. The lockdown sparked its own problems and triggered discussions on issues including economic hardship and domestic violence. The question of how domestic responsibilities are shared among adults in families has also come to the forefront of debate. As hired part-time help was discontinued under lockdown, parents who had hitherto outsourced childcare and housework were suddenly left to fend for themselves. This article attempts to explore the manner in which such unpaid domestic responsibilities, especially childcare, were shared between parents in middle-class homes. The gendered nature of this division of housework and care work, and its varied implications on the paid work and careers of mothers and fathers, is the focus of inquiry.
This was a qualitative study. The main objective of the study was to determine the roles of women and their family members during the Coronavirus lockdown period and find out if there was any gender disparity in household responsibilities between them. The snowballing technique was followed to select 10 participants. It applied a Case study approach and a semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect the primary data. The researcher attached the highest importance to ethical issues. It was found that all but two of the participants were working women and all ten were enjoying high social status thanks to their educational qualifications, professional positions as well as their monthly family incomes. During the lockdown period, most of the participants got no chance to take a single moment of rest and they had to start their household duties from the very morning till late evening. Because of the virus they had another extra burden of disinfecting different things. Big gender inequalities and gender disparities were found between the partners regarding performing household chores. Gender stereotyped roles were still prevalent among such highly educated males. At the same time, gender disparities were also noted between daughters and sons. Social workers have a vital role to play in these regards. Family casework and Family group work may be used to remove gender disparity, patriarchal attitudes to gender-stereotyped roles and to change the male ego of the husbands to make them more productive contributors to the family. Social workers can organize workshops, documentary shows, and views exchange programmes to make a positive change in the community regarding these issues.
COVID-19, LOCKDOWN AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN HOMES
COVID-19 has imposed mandatory lockdowns in many countries including India. However, since the lockdown has been imposed, attention is being focused on its economic repercussions and on providing food and shelter to poor and migrants. But the pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities and created challenges at other fronts too. More specifically, women’s lack of autonomy in the patriarchal homes is further getting reduces when today, `homes’ which are no longer merely seen as comfort zones, but during the lockdown, homes are evolving as spaces where people are working from home and earning their livelihoods, children are attending classes and other activities are being coordinated. Violence in such homes against women and children is rising during the lockdown. Women and children trapped within homes with the perpetrators of violence are facing severe abuse. In order to combat the situation and to make homes as safe zones, special measures are required. The government needs to declare domestic violence as `essential services’ and must take steps to provide immediate relief to women and children. In the long term, the need is to address entrenched structural discrimination in order to ensure gender equality within homes. Lockdowns may be interpreted in different ways. One is to lockdown our collective imaginations and allow the pre-existing stereotypical gender notions to continue and reiterate, or it could be, to isolate the world from the patriarchal notions and to reimagine a violence free gender just world.
Paid and unpaid work during the Covid-19 pandemic: a study of the gendered division of domestic responsibilities during lockdown, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic and the strategies implemented to deal with it have had economic and societal repercussions all over the world. In India, a nationwide lockdown was initiated on 25 March 2020 which continued in a diluted form as we were conducting the interviews for the paper in July 2020. The lockdown brought activities outside the home to a standstill and people were expected to stay indoors in order to ensure social distancing and break the chain of infection. The lockdown sparked its own problems and triggered discussions on issues including economic hardship and domestic violence. The question of how domestic responsibilities are shared among adults in families has also come to the forefront of debate. As hired part-time help was discontinued under lockdown, parents who had hitherto outsourced childcare and housework were suddenly left to fend for themselves. This article attempts to explore the manner in which such unpaid domestic responsibilities, especially childcare, were shared between parents in middle-class homes. The gendered nature of this division of housework and care work, and its varied implications on the paid work and careers of mothers and fathers, is the focus of inquiry
Psychological Consequences of Lockdown on Womens due to COVID-19
International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology, 2021
The 2019 corona virus disease (COVID19) pandemic is a public health emergency of international concern and poses a challenge to the psychological resilience, economy, and social life of people. As we know that women are playing an outsized role responding to COVID-19, including as frontline health workers, caregivers at home and as mobilizers in their communities. The answers to the simple question-"What are the main factors affecting women's health and have there been some changes in their life and behaviour post lockdown". The associations between the factors gave some important results in this study through Qualitative Study.
In the Shadows of Corona Virus Ordeals Faced by Women during the Lockdown
During the lockdown we were all supposed to be at home to be safe from the virus and prevent it from spreading, but was that the only threat? Was it only the virus outside that was dangerous or was there danger lurking within homes too? Shocking as it may sound, not everyone has been safe at home. Recently, International Men's Day had passed and the internet was filled with messages about how mens' social and mental issues have always been neglected and less highlighted over women's issues. Well, this is not a gender battle; or at least I feel so. There is no denying that men suffer various levels of trauma, however, it is the societal pressure on women including the domestic, biological, etc. which make them more vulnerable. Men do not have to deal with reproductive health issues like women, they are not the torch-bearers of retaining tradition, balancing between tradition and modernity or work within home and outside home. Matters became worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new level of stress, problems, uncertainty and issues arose for women while the world was stuck at home during the lockdown. The loss of women's rights, freedom and health. This paper deals with the issues in general that women had to face during the outbreak of the pandemic and how it poses a threat to not just women's livelihoods but increases their burden of work at home. Although as research has shown that the Corona virus poses a Impact of COVID-19 on Women in Asia and the Pacific 37 greater risk to the health of men, especially older men 1 , but the pandemic has caused another threat in the form of lockdowns and quarantines in which they women have to share their living spaces with abusive men risking their physical and emotional life, resulting in the worldwide rise of domestic violence. This paper is an attempt to look into some of the ordeals that women have faced in the lockdown during the pandemic.
Journal of Social Issues
The far-reaching, negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted healthcare, economic, public safety, and social systems globally. The public safety measures put in place in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, including sheltering in places orders and shutdowns of schools and places of work, negatively impacted the employment status and increased time spent in domestic work and childcare for women. In this paper, we review and analyze the impacts, both direct and indirect, of COVID-related policies on the lives of women. Specifically, we outline how the progression of policies aimed at addressing both public safety and economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic affected women's health, paid and unpaid work, and wellbeing. We will focus on the impacts of policies implemented in the United States in comparison to policies that were implemented globally to address similar issues during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for policies that could prevent similar disparate impacts on women in future crises.
Home is where the Hurt is! The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Women in India
International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 2020
The psychosocial impact of domestic violence with reference to the outbreak of COVID19 and the subsequent lockdown has increased anxiety and fear among women in India. A growing body of researches that has emerged during recent years across the world reveals that domestic violence is detrimental to women's health including their very survival. Similarly, past studies on impact of public health problems on women indicate that unequal gender relations and lack of control of women over their own bodies and lives make them more vulnerable to contracting the infection. This paper is based on a qualitative analysis of print, electronic and social media data, experiences of earlier researches and observations. It examines and highlights rise in cases of domestic violence faced by Indian women during the lockdown period from a social norm lens, its psychosocial impact on them and discusses possible measures to address these challenges. The findings of the study reveal that the pandemic and the lockdown have impacted Indian society significantly-socially, economically and health wise. In case of women, their domestic and household chores related responsibilities have increased substantially. The country has witnessed spike in reporting of the cases of domestic violence during the lockdown period indicating women's increased vulnerabilities at such critical time. The paper argues that this situation of women in India is due to the presence of myriad of beliefs, customs and prevailing social norms that are based on strong patriarchal mind set. The response of the State in terms of setting up of a special helpline number is not adequate as large number of women in India do not have awareness, accessibility, availability and affordability of means like personal mobile phone or landline telephone connections to contact these special helpline numbers. And even if they have it, they lack enough courage, inclination to do anything about it due to socialization and existing social norms. The existing services of the state to help women in need are functioning with limited resources and diverted attention to the pandemic. During the pandemic situation and lockdown the Government, State authorities and civil society organizations are more focused on relief work like economcic loss, availability of medical facilities and other basic necessities. Thus, addressing the issue of domestic violence has taken a backseat during the pandemic. The paper suggests consideration of domestic violence as a social disaster and inclusion of it in emergency services and disaster management programs of the state and civil society organisations.
Women's Work, Housework and Childcare, Before and During Covid-19
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020
Evidence from past economic crises indicates that recessions often affect men's and women's employment differently, with a greater impact on male-dominated sectors. The current COVID-19 crisis presents novel characteristics that have affected economic, health and social phenomena over wide swaths of the economy. Social distancing measures to combat the spread of the virus, such as working from home and school closures, have placed an additional tremendous burden on families. Using new survey data collected in April 2020 from a representative sample of Italian women, we analyse jointly the effect of COVID-19 on the working arrangements, housework and childcare of couples where both partners work. Our results show that most of the additional workload associated to COVID-19 falls on women while childcare activities are more equally shared within the couple than housework activities. According to our empirical estimates, changes to the amount of housework done by women during the emergency do not seem to depend on their partners' working arrangements. With the exception of those continuing to work at their usual place of work, all of the women surveyed spend more time on housework than before. In contrast, the amount of time men devote to housework does depend on their partners' working arrangements: men whose partners continue to work at their usual workplace spend more time on housework than before. The link between time devoted to childcare and working arrangements is more symmetric, with both women and men spending less time with their children if they continue to work away from home. For home schooling, too, parents who continue to go to their usual workplace after the lockdown are less likely to spend greater amounts of time with their children than before. Similar results emerge for our sample of women not working before the emergency. Finally, analysis of work-life balance satisfaction shows that working women with children aged 0-5 are those who say they find balancing work and family more difficult during COVID-19. The work-life balance is especially difficult to achieve for those with partners who continue to work outside the home during the emergency.
Women's overload during the pandemic
Management
This research examines the relationship between unpaid care work, financial well-being, and stress levels among women during the COVID 19 pandemic. The pandemic caused downturns in the economies of countries around the world and led to uncertainties and changes that created conditions for increased stress levels and consequently impaired well-being. In addition to social distancing and lock-down as measures to cope with the virus, working from home, home schooling, caring for sick and older family members, and financial problems have added burdens and have proven to be additional personal and family stressors. The findings are based on an online survey conducted among women during the second lock-down in Croatia. Additional unpaid care work and lower financial well-being affect the increased stress felt by women during the pandemic. This is especially pronounced among women who are more involved in paid work. During the pandemic, additional unpaid care work, increased involvement in...