COVID-19 and Its Impact on Women in the Labour Market

Introduction

Employment is a crucial part of gender equality. Not only does it enable women to earn a living, but it is a means of achieving their aspirations and personal goals, equipping them to exercise independence and freedom of choice. It is estimated that over 42 per cent of workers globally are either own-account or contributing family workers (categories defined as “vulnerable employment”) (ILO, 2018a). Thus, it reflects that there are over 1.4 billion workers who are likely in the informal employment, living in poverty, and have limited or no access to social protection systems. It is interesting to note that the progress in the developing countries towards the reduction of vulnerable employment has come to a standstill as the number of self- employed workers and contributing family workers has been on the rise. According to the World Employment Social Outlook Report, 2018, the share of workers in these categories of employment in developing and emerging countries is particularly high which is 76.4 per cent of total employment in the developing countries and 46.2 per cent in the emerging countries in 2018.

It is important to note that not only are women less likely than men to participate in the labour force, but those who do are either unable to find work or find hazardous low paying jobs. As of 2018, according to the World Employment Social Outlook Report, 2018, the global unemployment rate of women, at 6 per cent which is approximately 0.8 percent higher than that of unemployment of men. It points out to the fact that in 2018, a ratio of female-to male unemployment rates were 1:2. The report predicted that in the coming years, the ratio is projected to remain stable in developed countries on one hand and while on the other hand it is estimated to increase in both developing and emerging countries. It mirrored the deterioration in the relative position of women in terms of global unemployment. The developing countries show the highest ratio of female-to-male unemployment rates across income groups and lowest in case of developed countries. The reason for less unemployment rates among men in these countries are low by international standards, while the rates among women are only slightly above the global average. But it is important to understand that a relatively low unemployment rate, however, is far from being an indication of a healthy labour market, either for men or for women. Indeed, the rate of unemployment is not considered a robust test of labour market performance in developing and in some cases developed countries. What does it indicate then? This reflects upon the different complexities of informal employment and also about the limited access to social protection systems. Therefore, the women and men to take up any employment opportunity, regardless of the working conditions. At the same time, entrenched gender roles and labour market discrimination continue to hamper women’s access to decent jobs (ILO, 2016b and 2017a). As per ILO report (2015), the female unemployment rate is expected to increase further in this group of countries while the rate among men is expected to remain stable, thus increasing the ratio of female-to-male unemployment rates.

Recent reports by the ILO reflects that even though women prefer for paid jobs, socio-economic factors and prevailing social norms continue to obstruct their participation in paid employment of women, particularly in developing regions (ILO, 2017a; Gallup and ILO, 2017). These constraints for participation in the paid employment are often directly linked to the disproportionate burden of unpaid care and household responsibilities that women have to assume, which restricts both the educational and employment opportunities. Thus, their access and ability to participate in the labour market are restricted in the developing nations. In contrast, women in developed countries are closer to parity with men in terms of unemployment rates, with a ratio of female to male unemployment rates of 1:1 in 2018. In Eastern Europe and Northern America, women register lower unemployment rates than men according to ILO Report (2017). This reflects upon the substantial efforts in achieving gender parity in educational attainment and skill qualifications yet for many experts the success in attaining unemployment rate parity is also attributable to negative effects of the 2008 economic crisis that have impacted some male-dominated sectors like construction sectors.