Inequality in the middle of a crisis: an analysis of health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic from the profession, race, and gender perspectives

Abstract

Studies show that people in vulnerable conditions and some social groups such as women and black people have suffered more intensely from the COVID-19 pandemic impacts. This expression of inequality also manifests itself among healthcare workers, with greater exposure of some specific groups. This paper analyzes the effect of COVID-19 on health care workers and the working conditions in the Brazilian public health system, analyzed from professional, gender, and race perspectives. Data were collected from an online survey of 1,829 health workers conducted in March 2021. Indeed, we identified inequalities in health workers’ experiences during the health crisis generated by COVID-19, which are marked by the profession of each worker and are traversed by their gender and race traits.