Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Asia and the Pacific: Early Evidence on Deepening Socioeconomic Inequalities in Paid and Unpaid Work

ABSTRACT

Using data from Rapid Gender Assessment Surveys investigating the socioeconomic consequences of COVID-19 on women’s and men’s lives, this study assesses whether the pandemic threatens fragile gains on gender equality in paid and unpaid work. Evidence from eleven countries in Asia-Pacific indicates that the impact of the pandemic goes far beyond health consequences. With children out of school, intensified care needs of elderly and ill family members, and labor markets in turmoil, demands for unpaid domestic and care work have increased substantially. Results show that women are disproportionately shouldering the burden of unpaid care and domestic work triggered by the lockdowns, and they are losing their livelihoods faster than men. Worsening mental health also emerges as a critical area affecting women disproportionately. These findings inform emergency responses for a gender-sensitive recovery, and underscore the need to take radical, positive actions to redress long-standing inequalities in multiple areas of women’s lives.

HIGHLIGHTS

• UN Women’s Rapid Gender Assessments (RGAs) gave early insights into COVID-19 impacts.

• Asia-Pacific RGAs show that the crisis had dramatic socioeconomic impacts on women.

• Women are more likely to experience loss in paid work hours than men.

• Women and men are doing more unpaid domestic and care work, but women take on the larger share.

• The emotional and mental health impact of the pandemic is disproportionately falling on women.

• More gender-responsive surveys and quality administrative sources are needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Rapid gender assessment surveys
• gendered impacts of COVID-19
• unpaid care and domestic work
• mental health
• informal employment
• women’s economic empowerment

JEL Codes:

• J22
• C80
• I31

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at .

Notes

1 UN Women and the World Health Organization (WHO) generated estimates on COVID-19 cases by gender and age. Although an important first step, data is still unavailable for many countries. For further references, please see UN Women (2020c).

2 Series refers to women and men ages 16 and over. Men’s unemployment rate increased from 4.7 percent in August 2007 to a peak of 11 percent in January 2010, compared to 4.6 and 8.4 percent for women over the same period. Data are from the US BLS (2020).

3 An example is the World Bank’s “High Frequency Mobile Phone Surveys of Households to Assess the Impacts of COVID-19,” which are designed to only allow for disaggregation by gender of the head of the household. See World Bank (2020).

4 Conducting RGAs jointly with other organizations private sector and civil society organizations (CSOs) promotes greater collaboration, reduces duplication, and is critical for rollout, advocacy, and program implementation. Most importantly, partnering with governments, including National Statistics Offices (NSOs) and gender machineries helps leverage government expertise and resources and foster buy-in and data use.

5 Afghanistan (n=6,961), Bangladesh (n=2,345), Cambodia (n=1,164), Indonesia (n=1,252), Maldives (n=4,754), Nepal (n=8,198), Pakistan (n=2,668), Philippines (n=3,318), Samoa (n=612), Solomon Islands (n=145), and Thailand (n=5,031).

6 Solomon Islands were not included in the aggregates due to low response rate and thus should be interpreted with caution.

7 Considering region- and country-specific priorities and needs, specific objectives may vary slightly, but it is expected that the general objectives should be maintained and followed.

8 In all countries people were encouraged to stay at home, with two of the countries also imposing penalties if leaving. In four countries, permits were required for outings, which could be granted to any one household member (three countries) or just the household head (one country). Curfews or partial curfews were imposed in eight countries. In nine countries, the government provided financial aid to unemployed people and/or national citizens whose income fell below a threshold.

9 Refer to UN Women (2020b) for a broader overview of consequences.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Papa A. Seck

Papa A. Seck is the Chief of Research and Data Section of UN Women.

Jessamyn O. Encarnacion

Jessamyn O. Encarnacion is Inter-Regional Advisor on Gender Statistics at UN Women.

Cecilia Tinonin

Cecilia Tinonin is a Statistician and Time-Use Specialist at UN Women Asia and Pacific Regional Office.

Sara Duerto-Valero

Sara Duerto-Valero is Regional Advisor on Gender Statistics at UN Women Asia-Pacific Regional Office.