“The Covid-19 pandemic will have a disproportionate negative effect on women and their employment opportunities,” the authors write.
However, the paper suggests that the shift in workplace culture and increased flexibility — catalyzed by Covid-19 — may also promote gender equality in the long run.
The sectors that are going to be most affected — for example, the restaurants, which are all closed, or the travel sector — have fairly high female employment. More women will lose jobs.
But the much bigger thing for most people who live with children is the extra child care needs — everybody with young kids has to provide all of the child care all of a sudden. And we argue that the vast majority of this extra work will fall on women, therefore making it difficult for them to work as usual.
