Abstract
ABSTRACT The COVID-19 outbreak and resultant economic crisis has led to governments in Europe taking extraordinary action to support citizens. Bodies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommend such measures should include targeted support for the most affected population groups. Women form one of these groups, with disproportionate impacts on their employment and economic resources already documented. Although the disruption brought about by the COVID-19 crisis has the potential to reshape gender relations for everyone’s benefit, there are concerns that the crisis will exacerbate underlying gender inequalities. Though these impacts are likely to be felt globally, public policy has the potential to mitigate them and to ensure a gender-sensitive recovery from the crisis. This paper introduces a gendered lens on the employment and social policies European countries have established since the crisis, with a brief comparative analysis of short-time working schemes in four countries – Germany, Italy, Norway, and the UK. Ongoing research seeks to extend the comparative, gendered analysis of the design, access and impacts of COVID-19 employment and social policies across Europe.
Highlights
While men are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 disease (Global Health 50-50 2020), the fallout from the pandemic has led to grave consequences for women: mounting evidence points to reduced access to sexual and reproductive health services, increased domestic violence, R
This paper introduces a gendered lens on the employment and social policies European countries have established since the crisis, with a brief comparative analysis of shorttime working schemes in four countries – Germany, Italy, Norway, and the UK
This demonstrates two layers of gendered impacts on employment – one from the crisis itself, and another from the policies pursued in response to it
Summary
Our research project incorporates these insights into a comparative analysis of the gendered design, access and impacts of COVID-19 employment and social policies in Europe, as well as longer-term policies designed to combat the post-pandemic recession This gendered analysis focuses on the extent to which policies: acknowledge men’s and women’s different structural positions in the economy and society (such as women’s over-representation in low paid and non-standard work); reflect and reinforce existing norms and expectations about male and female labour market and household activities (for example, women’s greater likelihood to undertake childcare); and treat care as an integral part of the economy. The lack of explicit support for low-paid workers (except in Norway), exclusion of key categories of female-dominated non-standard employment (in Germany and Italy), and the way periods of caregiving leave are treated reveal male-centred assumptions about the reference worker for policy design Absent across these COVID-19 social policies is acknowledgement of care as an integral part of the economy requiring support in a crisis, alongside employment and business
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