The feminist implications following COVID-19
One of the many repercussions of the current COVID-19 pandemic is the exacerbation of the many social injustices present in our society. Whether these repercussions will lead to a positive or negative change in today’s social dynamic is yet to be determined. One largely affected, yet infrequently mentioned, group, are women. The major ubiquitous implications for women and feminism are widespread and affecting our everyday lives yet talked about in frightening infrequent amounts.
The financial crises arising from the repercussions of the world shutting down are still being seen today despite the advantages of the vaccine. Families, especially those with young children have been forced to take time off their jobs, their livelihoods, for a multitude of reasons. A silent victim to the implications of said crisis are the women who have had to quit, been ‘let go’ or left work to care for their families. It’s almost as if the modern-day working family has been sent back into the 1950’s as women’s independence is silent victim to the pandemic.
This is not to say, that men, who have taken over the caregiver role are not affected, they do however, have one privilege women do not. One simple fact that for a reason unbeknown to most makes them more ‘privileged’. They are men.
The one simple fact that supports the patterns of lost jobs and the duress women are under. Considering COVID-19 implications, nearly 36.5 million people have filed unemployment claims in just two months, with a disproportion number of women feeling the brunt of these losses. According to the National Women’s Law Center, in April of 2020 alone, women accounted for 55% of the 20.5 million jobs lost. Even prior to the pandemic, finding a job as a female in today’s society was and is harder for women than men. It is an undeniable fact, supported by the current global labor force participation rate. Which sits, currently at 49% for men compared to a huge 75% for men.
Take a minute to let that sink in.
Women are already more likely to be burdened with unpaid care and domestic work than men, something that has increased since the world shut down. The lack of income, which translates to an astounding lack of freedom, both finically and otherwise, decreases women’s independence by a huge amount. This is, not to say, that men who have lost jobs and been placed into domestic roles are not experiencing the same affects. It is instead, to what proportion and what lasting effects that being forced into these roles will have on women and feminism.
The lack of finical freedom will have women everywhere struggling. Struggling to maintain a carefully structured balance that holds their lives together. Domestic abuse survivors will have no real way to access and maintain possibly lifesaving contact with the outside world. And society will continue to plough forward, with no real regard for the loss of freedom an entire social group are experiencing.
With students being forced to stay home for many months, and the inevitable loss of jobs, from lack of employment to a loss of childcare systems. All over the paid economy, daycares, babysitters, and schools have been swept up within the conquences of the pandemic. With politicians and many of the upper class ignoring, or simply not considering the destruction left in the wake of the pandemic.
The pandemic is so much more than a medical crisis. It is an economic and societal one, pushing forward the injustices in our society. The Black Lives Matter movement that spread across North America and to the rest of the world was the first evidence of the many flaws in today’s world. Women’s rights should be the next. The salient loss of women’s rights and their freedom should be something we, as a society, as a generation should be pushing back against. While feminism unfortunately has not yet achieved the true inclusivity desired, the opportunities it has created are indescribable. The persistent wage gap has shrunk considerably and the right that women have today are incomparable to those from 50 years ago. Yet in light of the pandemic, society is failing feminism. Feminism is dynamic, needing not only women, but men and all people to help support it. It relies on each generation to take what has improved from the past and add on to it. Our current generation was built on the work of the first wave of feminism, and we succeeded. Now it is time for our generation to continue to build on the past and push it forward.
Whilst we cannot halt the virus or its societal implications in its tracks, we can consider and change some of realities that follow it.
References
https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Employment/barriers-women
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/coronavirus-job-losses-disproportionately-impact-women.html
