Shecession: The Downfall of Colombian Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article explores the short-term effects of the COVID-19 crisis on gender gaps in the Colombian labor market. Colombia offers an interesting case for analysis because, as with most countries in the Global South, its combination of formal and informal labor in the labor market complicates the pandemic’s aftermath. This analysis highlights the differences between men’s and women’s labor outcomes in terms of the effects of the crisis. Specifically, the study documents a phenomenon that the authors call a “female fall,” by which, in comparison to men, women lost status in the labor market. This article also shows a downgrade in the condition of women who remained employed via lower wages, especially in the informal sector. As a result of the pandemic, increasing numbers of women were relegated to domestic work. Finally, the article discusses how women’s burden of unpaid care increased.

HIGHLIGHTS

• In Colombia, COVID-19 hit women workers harder than men due to sectoral differences and domestic duties.

• Lockdown imposed a high caregiving burden that mostly fell on women.

• Women were more likely to drop out of the labor force to devote themselves to care work, reversing progress toward gender equality.

• Women were more vulnerable to precarious work conditions and lower wages.

• Ongoing recovery needs to better address the gendered impact of pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender gap
• informality
• employment
• time use
• Colombia
• COVID-19

JEL Codes:

• E24
• J16
• J22

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

All the data processed and used for this work are taken from the official microdata bases that are downloadable by the general public. The opinions and statements are the authors’ sole responsibility and do not necessarily represent those of the Banco de la República or its board of directors, Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística or UNDP.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor change. This change do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In the United States, the term “Shecession” was proposed in media outlets like The New York Times because women accounted for 55 percent of the 20.5 million jobs lost in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Gupta 2020).

2 Due to mandatory measures to contain the virus during March and April 2020, the GEIH survey underwent some modifications: the questionnaire was reduced from 200 to 39 questions; the survey was conducted by telephone; and no information was collected on individuals’ education and social security affiliation. Due to high levels of disparity in education among respondents, it is relevant to control for that variable in all analyses of the labor market, especially when distinguishing between formal and informal sectors (Herrera-Idárraga, López-Bazo, and Motellón 2015). Therefore, March and April 2020 cannot be used for econometric analysis due to the absence of at least one variable that functions as a key control.

3 The labor market results analyzed are participation rate, unemployment rate, formal employment, hourly wage, and the number of hours worked. According to DANE, “Informal employed: people who, during the reference period, were in one of the following situations: 1. Private employees and workers who work in establishments, businesses or companies that employ up to five people in all their agencies and branches, including the employer and/or partner; 2. Unpaid family workers in companies with five workers or less; 3. Unpaid workers in companies or businesses of other households; 4. Domestic employees in companies with five workers or less; 5. Day laborers or laborers in companies with five workers or less; 6. Self-employed workers who work in establishments of up to five people, except professional independents; 7. Employers or employers in companies with five workers or less; 8. Government workers or employees are excluded.” This definition (like the one proposed by the International Labor Office) will be referred to as informal worker herein. Regarding hourly wages, for wage earners we combine the information on gross monthly earnings and hours worked to obtain gross hourly wages. For self-employed workers, we use the earnings or profits reported in the last month, the months to which those earnings correspond, and the hours worked to obtain hourly earnings. In order to facilitate reading we will refer only to hourly wages for both salaried and self-employed workers.

4 Sector dummies include: electricity and utility services; financial sector; mining and agricultural sector; communications; professional activities; commerce and retail; manufacturing; construction; transportation and storage; logging and food services; and real estate activities. Occupation controls include dummy variables at a highly disaggregated classification level (39 levels).

5 Other possible causes include restrictions on mobility and the differentiated effects of the pandemic on the sectors. On the one hand, Brian Knight, Maria Mercedes Ponce de Leon, and Ana Tribin (2021) found evidence of a reduction in women’s mobility during the pandemic relative to men. On the other hand, Titan Alon et al. (2022) show evidence of the more severe effect of the pandemic in contact-intensive occupations in the service sector, which have high women’s employment shares.

6 The same exercise was carried out for 2016, 2017, and 2018, with similar results (available from the authors upon request).

7 After more than two years of the official declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia, the unemployment rate reached its pre-pandemic level in May of 2022 (11.1 percent). Nevertheless, some important gender gaps remain. For instance, the gender gap in the unemployment rate before the pandemic was near 4pp; in May 2022, this gap was more than 1pp higher, reaching 5.6 pp (Subgerencia Politica Monetaria 2022).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ana Tribin

Ana Tribin is a public policy specialist at UNDP-RBLAC. She is an economist from Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. She holds a Master’s degree and a PhD in economics from Brown University. She previously worked at the Colombian Central Bank as Senior Research Economist and as the National Advisor for Women’s Equality with the Colombian Government. Her areas of research are gender, political economy, and development economics. She is the author of several papers published in international and national books and journals (World Development, Feminist Economics, Journal of the European Economic Association, European Journal of Political Economy), and a book editor.

Karen García-Rojas

Karen Garcia-Rojas is Gender Statistics Advisor at Colombia’s National Statistical Office (DANE). She obtained a MA in Economics at Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, where she was part of the “young researchers” program. She has worked for six years in several positions in data management in the public sector, including the Congress of the Republic and the Observatory of Victims of the armed conflict of the Mayor of Bogotá. She was part of the internship program in research of the Central Bank of Colombia. Her research interests are in gender, development, and behavioral economics, and she has a publication in the Agricultural Finance Review.

Paula Herrera-Idarraga

Paula Herrera-Idarraga is Associate Professor at Javeriana University. Her research interests include labor economics, regional economics, and gender economics. She obtained her PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona. Her research has been focused on topics related to educational mismatch, informality, regional inequalities, and gender discrimination for Colombia. Her articles have been published in academic journals such as The Journal of Development Studies and Spatial Economic Analysis.

Leonardo Fabio Morales

Leonardo Morales is a member of the Group of Analysis of Colombian Labor Market Group (GAMLA) from the Colombian Central Bank. He is an economist from Universidad del Valle. He holds a Master's and PhD in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He had been a consultant in the World Bank. He is the author of several papers published in international and national books and journals (Journal of Economis and Biology, Small Business Economics, Labour, Journal of International Economics, Cepal Journal).

Natalia Ramirez-Bustamante

Natalia Ramírez-Bustamante is Assistant Professor at the Law School Faculty at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá where she is the head of the field of Labor Law. She is a lawyer and philosopher from Universidad de los Andes in Bogota. She holds a Master’s degree and a Science Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. Her areas of research are labor informality, employment and labor law, gender discrimination in employment, and political theory of regulation. She is the author of several papers published in international and national books and journals.