Women and COVID-19: Global Pandemics are Women’s Issues

May 8 2020

When COVID-19 hit Canada like a hurricane, we all batten down the hatches and hoped for the best, unsure of how long the storm would last. Unfortunately, as a country, we didn’t originally consider how this unique experience would impact different groups of people – specifically, how it would impact women. Now we’re seeing COVID-19 have a disproportionate impact on women and not for the reasons you might expect. While more women aren’t necessarily getting sick, we are seeing women feel the weight of the pandemic in three main areas: the healthcare sector, their wallets and their families.

Women in Healthcare

How many times have I walked into a hospital or retirement home and been greeted by a female healthcare workers? I cannot think of an encounter when this was not the case, can you? This shouldn’t surprise me knowing that 75% of healthcare practitioners and 87% of healthcare support staff are women, according to the World Health Organization. But I never stopped to consider what this disproportionate gender representation in healthcare would mean for women when we found ourselves in a global pandemic.  Every day, women across Canada put themselves at risk to support the population affected by COVID-19 on top of the regular healthcare needs to the greater population. The frontline workers at the YW are a perfect example of this – making extraordinary sacrifices to help the underserved.

Women and Money

Women are getting disproportionately hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic when it comes to financial stability. Many female-dominated industries such as hospitality, childcare and education are experiencing significant layoffs and, in some cases, permanent closure. Layering on top of this devastating reality is the facts that women historically have less saving to live on during these challenging times.

In 2018, women earned 13% less than their male counterpart in Canada. In the States, the figures are even worse. The gender wage gap widens even further for marginalized women, making it even harder for women in Canada’s diverse communities to survive during this season of layoffs.

Women and Childcare

When schools and daycare centers started to close early on into the pandemic, women immediately felt the impact of the world shutting down. Historically, women are more likely to take on the unpaid caregiving role of children and elderly family members than their male partner, especially in cases where a woman is the lower income earner. This means that even women who weren’t initially laid off from their work have had to step away from their careers (and stable incomes) to provide care for dependents. This struggle becomes even more devastating for single-parent households – 80% of which are led by women in Canada – when caregivers need to choose between working and taking care of their children who are home from school.

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have touched the life of nearly every woman in Canada. And these burdens left behind by this pandemic will long outlive the virus itself as women in our communities struggle to recover economically, mentally and emotionally. Help women in your community rebuild after the storm with a donation to the YWCA Niagara Region.