Labor market and unpaid works implications of COVID-19 for Bangladeshi women

Abstract

Crisis impacts are never gender-neutral, and COVID-19 is no exception. The pandemic has further exacerbated the gender and socioeconomic inequalities, therefore, crucial to undertake a gender impact analysis of COVID-19. This perspective paper highlights women's vulnerability in the labor market and focused on the increasing unpaid workloads in the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Focusing on various surveys, feminized sectors such as agriculture, garments have been hardest hit by the pandemic. Female workers have been rapidly lost their means to earn income and confined to homes. Beyond lost jobs and reduced working hours, the pandemic has also increased the time poverty of women. While pre-pandemic unpaid work burdens are well established as strong, the study indicates that burdens are escalated after-pandemic. Women balanced intensified unpaid care and domestic works simultaneously or make a tradeoff, without or minimal help from men. Such results suggest a gender-inclusive policy to minimize the effects of the pandemic, placing women at the center of focus.