Changes in Working Women’s Self-Reported Levels of Stress, Fatigue, and Quality of Interpersonal Relationships During COVID-19: A Comparison of Essential and Non-Essential Workers in Singapore

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented crisis for working women, but no global consensus on the effects on their well-being has emerged due to differing institutional responses. This article focuses on changes in working women’s self-reported levels of stress, fatigue and quality of interpersonal relationships during lockdown in Singapore, one of the first countries to be hit by the pandemic. Using longitudinal data collected in 2018 and during the 2020 lockdown, we compare the results for women working in essential and non-essential jobs. We also consider three predictors of differential outcomes: i) perceived risks of infection and anxiety towards the coronavirus, ii) income loss, and iii) exposure to quarantine conditions, which may have been particularly stressful for working women who face the challenge of balancing work and family life. Compared to respondents in households with no essential workers, a higher proportion of women who identified as essential workers reported reduced levels of stress and increased levels of fatigue. In addition, the latter were less likely to report changes in spousal relationship quality. Results from multinomial logit regression models suggest that the differences in stress levels and changes in spousal relationships were statistically significant, and that they were primarily driven by the third predictor, work from home status. Heterogeneity analysis shows that female essential workers in higher-income households generally enjoyed greater reductions in stress and fatigue, but that these advantages did not translate to greater improvements in family relationships.