Covid 19 And Its Impact Of Society

Today, the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting all societies around the world in an unprecedented manner. At the movement, it has disturbed nearly a quarter of the world population throughout all the continents of the world except Antarctica. This virus was able to break up all the human activities of the world and was capable of killing more than 200,000 people. As the pandemic is still going on none of the governments or any global health institution were able to go for a preparedness phase to build up static and theoretical findings of the direct and indirect gender reactions of the disease. As the World Bank(2020) indicates “there is a risk that gender gaps could widen during and after the pandemic and that gains in women’s and girls’ accumulation of human capital, economic empowerment and voice, and agency, built over the past decades, could be reversed”, it is critically important to analyze the primary and secondary gender reactions to create more efficient policies and prevention methods in health, economic and education sectors.

According to CNN reporter’s recent data about China, South Korea, and Italy regarding the COVID-19 outbreak indicate that the share of men that are dying due to the infection is much higher than that of women. The majority of the deaths across countries appear to be men. “A study from China, for instance, found that the fatality rate among men with the virus was roughly 65 percent higher than it was among women.”(World Bank,2020). Although the reasons for this trend yet remain unclear, initial researches state that the higher incidence of chronic diseases (hypertension), risky and or health-seeking behaviors (smoking and drugs) among men and high immunity of women than man due to estrogen hormone as the reasons.

Women are the largest component of the health workforce, but they may have less decision-making capacity within the sector and less access to protective equipment in times of crisis compared to male health workers. “During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, nurses, traditional birth attendants, and cleaners/laundry workers in health facilities (most of whom were female) were not provided with the same amount of protective gear given to (male) doctors and other high-ranking hospital officials” (World Bank, 2020). Apart from that, women are also vulnerable in more informal sectors of the health workforce, such as home health care, aids, or community health workers. “Indeed, and as part of the response to the COVID-19 crisis, some countries are mobilizing large unpaid community health care forces” (World Bank, 2020)

Across the world, most primary caregivers to ill patients are women, which further exposes them to the disease. Women, traditionally responsible and bound for the caring of children and the elderly, often remain in charge of caring for the ill during the outbreak of a pandemic. “During the 2014–16 west African outbreak of Ebola virus disease, gendered norms meant that women were more likely to be infected by the virus, given their predominant roles as caregivers within families and as front-line healthcare workers” (Morgan, 2020).

On one hand, women seem to be still active and expose to the pandemic more than men in some occupations like supermarket cashiers, hospital cleaners, and pharmacists. At the same time, men also active in many dangerous sectors like security forces, transport, and logistics. All these sectors can be categorized as essential services. So these groups have become increasingly vulnerable and crucial during the containment of the spread.

In general, in many countries, women were often unable to access reproductive care services, which increased maternal mortality. “There are already estimations that indicate that COVID-19 may leave millions of women and girls out on vital family planning services this year” (World Bank, 2020). At the same time, the female body undergoes many changes during pregnancy (immunity system) and some diseases are can be severe during pregnancy. The virus can be transmitted in obstetric care facilities, where there may be a lower level of awareness of possible infection, lack of clinical guidelines, and protective equipment to midwives. At the same time, there is evidence of vertical transmission from mother to child. At the same time, gender-based violence may have been increasing due to the increased tension, stress, and confinement conditions in the household. “Gender-based violence has increased as families find themselves in lockdowns with low economic security and feeling of helplessness. For example in France, domestic violence cases went up by 30% during the lockdown, while calls to the domestic violence line in Argentina went up by 25%” (Njuki).

Sex-biased sectors and occupations will lead to different economic impacts over the short, medium, and long term. Some of the economic activities like travel, hospitality, textile and apparel manufacturing, and retail sales (other than supermarkets and pharmacies) seem to be most adversely affected. “For example, about half of the employed women in Bangladesh work in textile or ready-made garment manufacturing. Already, millions of garment workers, mostly women, have been sent home without further pay due to COVID-19. It has been reported that out of the 700,000 jobs that were eliminated in the first wave of the pandemic in the USA, 60 percent were held by women. Generally over half of the employees in these occupations are women” (World Bank, 2020). At the same time, women who are self-employed and small business owners (e.g., restaurants and shops), are also be expected to be especially affected by the crisis. On the other hand, male-dominated sectors like construction and manufacturing are also likely to be severely impacted. At the same time, due to the travel bans and imposed restrictions foreign employees (especially female house workers in the Middle East) seem to face a vulnerable situation due to the risk of losing the job. ”On the other hand, women may also have access to new income-generating activities such as sewing masks, making hand sanitizer, delivery of tests/medicine, new manufacturing jobs, or greater involvement in agriculture if hired labor is not an option” (World Bank, 2020).

The educational impacts of a public health crisis of these dimensions can be especially large for girls in some countries, compared to the boys. Due to the closure of schools, home-schooling or distance learning will be necessary for children to keep up with the program and materials. Existing gender inequalities in the use of digital resources and IT will therefore affect access to education for girls. Apart from that, in some middle and low-income countries, girls will be expected to take on household and family care duties, and it will leave them with less time for learning at home. “Moreover, the closure of schools as part of the containment efforts may lead many girls that already experience pressure to drop out to stay out of education permanently. This was often the case after the Ebola crisis in Western Africa, as a result of which gender gaps in access to education increased” (World Bank, 2020). On the other hand, as a side-effect of the crisis, boys may be forced out of schooling to contribute to income generation activities for the household.