Gender gap progress at risk via pandemic
The pressures from work and lowered income, combined with the burden of taking care of children and housework, lie especially heavy on Vietnamese women during the current social distancing period, rendering many of them collateral victims of the pandemic.
Women are disproportionately taking the biggest hit in the pandemic. Photo: Le Toan
Ngoc Nguyen, a 33-year-old living in Hanoi’s Cau Giay district, received a master’s degree from the University of Sydney at the end of 2019. For most of the past two years she has been taking care of children and doing housework. When she first returned to her country, she received many attractive job offers, but the pandemic and prolonged periods of social distancing caused her to temporarily put aside her dreams.
“Since the outbreak, I have not been able to
send my children to school. No company allows employees to take long leave, so
I have had to change jobs several times over the past year. My income is higher
than my husband’s, but if a person has to stay home to take care of children,
that person will always have to be me,” shared Ngoc.
Ngoc’s case is a common one in Vietnam.
According to the report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on
gender and the labour market from March, women spend an average of 20.2 hours
per week cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking, shopping, and taking care
of the family while men spend only 10.7 hours. Nearly a fifth of men spend no
time doing housework.
These numbers are likely to increase even more
during the pandemic as working from home becomes more commonplace. Experts fear
this will have lasting effects in eradicating stereotypes and minimising the
gender gap.
Valentina Barcucci, economist at the ILO
Vietnam said, “Inequality against women in job quality and career development
also stems from the dual responsibility they have to take.”
This is not only a problem for low- and
middle-income women, but even businesswomen face similar pressure. The
Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs released in early 2021 shows that
COVID-19 is creating more responsibilities for women in many economies around
the world. Around 23 per cent of female business leaders said they spend six
hours or more per day doing housework and taking care of the family, compared
with 11 per cent of men.
The report also points out that pressure to
take care of children is one of the many factors making women vulnerable,
especially in economies like Vietnam, South Korea, and Thailand.
Employment and income are the most negative impacts that the
pandemic has on women. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a 25-year-old woman from Hanoi’s Hadong
district, said that she has been interviewed seven times in the past three
months but has not yet received a job.
By Hoang Oanh
Source: https://vir.com.vn/gender-gap-progress-at-risk-via-pandemic-86773.html
