LISER Study Confirms Women Hit Hardest by COVID-19 Crisis

On Monday 7 March 2022, Luxembourg's Minister for Equality between Women and Men, Taina Bofferding, attended a conference with a round table at the Maison du livre on the Esch-Belval site for the presentation of results of a study carried out by the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on gender equality.

The appearance of the coronavirus in early 2020 and the subsequent outbreak of the state of crisis in Luxembourg have had an impact on a multitude of areas of our daily life: first and foremost health, but also employment, public life, childcare, education, domestic chores or marital and family relations. In terms of gender equality, the question arises as to how these drastic changes in daily life and the measures taken by the government have influenced equality.

Thus, the Ministry of Equality between Women and Men has mandated LISER to focus on several subjects such as:

• Differences relating to health aspects directly related to COVID-19, such as the number of infections, the mortality rate or hospitalisations;
• The impact of the measures introduced by the Luxembourg government following the first confinement, such as, for example, leave for family reasons or partial unemployment;
• The impact of the crisis on gender equality in terms of unemployment and financial resources;
• The use of teleworking by women and men, as well as the differences in terms of time use in the context of home education and in the performance of domestic tasks;
• Economic and financial insecurity felt by women and men;
• The attitudes of women and men towards measures to stem the pandemic, such as for example “barrier gestures”, testing or the attitude towards vaccination against COVID-19.

Minister Bofferding, first stressed that: “each crisis has a different impact on women and men. Whether it is an economic-financial crisis, a natural disaster or the pandemic in which we have been living since the beginning of 2020, the consequences suffered by the sexes are different. And it is above all women who suffer them less well”.

In her speech, Minister Bofferding raised the most striking examples of the consequences differently suffered by women relating to employment, intra-family organisation, social interactions or even the distribution of domestic tasks during the different phases of confinement. “We are seeing, for example, that women have been more engaged in raising children at home and the same is true for domestic chores. This study also shows that the pandemic risks wiping out advances in gender equality. In times of crisis, gender equality is a goal that is often suspended and tends to be seen as secondary. Having a scientific basis in the form of a study with an inventory is an essential first step. It is about drawing the right conclusions and empowering the various ministries to implement more gender-targeted policies. It is not just about rectifying long-standing inequalities. We want to build a more just and resilient society.”

Aline Muller, Director General of LISER, clarified that “a crisis never hits the population in a homogeneous way. Because of their differentiated impacts on populations, crises unfortunately too often tend to exacerbate inequalities".

She further recalled: “the notion of inequality refers to the disparities that exist between the citizens of our society because of their social affiliations, the economic conditions in which they live, but also because of their gender. These inequalities are shaped by the circumstances in which citizens of society grow up, are educated, live, work and age. During the COVID-19 crisis, these inequalities were also influenced by the circumstances in which individuals had to deal with the health crisis that has hit us since 2020. The way women and men have had to deal with the crisis have been different, for example in the exposure of single mothers or through certain professions”. Aline Muller concluded: "society has a duty to question the public policies put in place and their ability to protect the most exposed and/or most vulnerable populations".

Dr Giorgia Menta and Prof Dr Philippe Van Kerm first focused on gender differences in the impact of the disease itself, and then presented the effect of the pandemic and containment measures on employment and family life. “While men and women have, overall, been contaminated in similar proportions, men have been much more likely to develop serious forms of COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation, admission to intensive care, or even death. This gap is very marked in Luxembourg, but it has also been observed elsewhere in the world,” said Prof Van Kerm. “While the gender differences in contaminations are globally insignificant, we can nevertheless observe that mothers of families have been more contaminated, more than fathers of families – a finding underlining the importance of roles in the household on the risk of infection".

Dr Bertrand Verheyden pointed out that women are more inclined to comply with health measures than men. “Women indeed tend to be more concerned about the repercussions of COVID-19 on their health and to have a more cautious attitude towards risky situations in general. That said, even when these differences are taken into account, women remain generally more respectful of the measures, in particular the regular wearing of the mask and the respect of barrier gestures. However, women expressed more concern about the side effects of vaccination. Women and men are therefore not sensitive to the same aspects of the pandemic. Consequently, certain communications in support of these policies could gain in effectiveness by being adapted according to gender”.

Dr Menta added: “the gender gap in unpaid work in June 2020 was qualitatively wider than it was before the pandemic. While both increased the time spent on household chores and childcare, the women did 30 minutes more per day, on average. Our results suggest that men missed their chance to increase their contribution to unpaid work in a way that could have narrowed the gender gap in housework and childcare".

Minister Bofferding concluded: “it is important to discuss the salient results of the study with the actors concerned, starting with the ministries particularly affected by the crisis, but also with the social partners. The LISER study, the conference and the round table were the start. The crisis has exposed the deficits in the organisation of our society, including gender inequalities that are likely to increase during and after the crisis. This is why we must respond with a more gender-targeted policy so that future crises create less inequality”.