COVID-19 has exposed weaknesses in healthcare infrastructure as well as wealth and gender inequalities worldwide, including the Southeast Asian region.
Being a woman in patriarchal Southeast Asian societies has its limitations, one of which is access to education and job opportunities. While there have been many advancements and improvements over the last 30 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has put such progress at risk.
Gender gap and inequalities before COVID-19
Since before the pandemic, women's rates of participation in the workforce had been steadily increasing, with women in Vietnam and China making up 50% of the total labour force. Despite this, only 20% of board representatives in OECD countries are women. The low number is because of prevailing social norms that expect women to work in the informal sector and service-related fields, which are typically low-paying jobs and roles.
One of the keys to closing the gender gap is to achieve social mobility and higher earning potential through improved access to education for girls. However, these opportunities are often given to sons rather than daughters.
Under the patriarchal norm that the return to education is higher for boys and traditional gender norms, girls would not be able to get as high an education as boys do. As a result, the investment for the future generation would be greatly decreased in the event of a long-term recession.
Moreover, women often take on the nurturer and caretaker role in the home. Mothers who maintain a professional career are also often expected to bear dual burdens of childcare. Hence, some employers are hesitant to give women more responsibilities.
The challenges above illustrate just some of the contributing factors to why the gender pay gap still exists. A 2018 study by Korn Ferry Global Gender Pay found that, on average, women earn 15% less than men. Based on the statistic, the Asian region still has a long way to go to achieve true equality.
How COVID-19 has widened the gender gap
As the world imposed travel restrictions and lockdown measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, the retail, hospitality and tourism sectors were some of the first industries to be disrupted by the pandemic. This put women in a vulnerable position as these sectors have a high proportion of female employees and traditionally rely on face-to-face interaction. Thus, women are more likely to lose their source of income.
Women are also likely to be employed in informal sectors, where they rely on daily wages to meet their daily needs. They are often not protected by employment laws and are not entitled to sick or vacation days. Employers can also end their employment at any time without cause or severance pay.
According to a UN survey, female workers in informal sectors in Bangladesh and Thailand were more likely to work less hours than their male counterparts or lose their jobs during the pandemic.
In another example, garment manufacturing provides the most informal employment for women in Cambodia. But as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on the supply chain, the demand for global clothing has plunged as far as 50%. This resulted in mass layoffs that has harmed the income stream of these women.
The ongoing school closures are another great burden on working mothers who have had to continue working from home as telecommuting became the norm. They're still expected to tutor their children while continuing to juggle workplace commitments. Sari Saraswati, a working mother, found it challenging to balance it all. Furthermore, given the pre-existing gender gap in domestic work and childcare, it is difficult to assume equal contributions to domestic labour by both genders during the lockdown.
The pandemic has also lead to an increase in intimate partner violence. These acts are often carried out by their parents and partners, and it can be difficult to escape such situations due to quarantine and lockdown measures. In fact, many countries have reported higher number of police reports associated with domestic violence, as well as increased calls to gender advocacy organisations during the lockdown periods.
There have also been reports on child marriages on the rise under pandemic conditions. According to Girls Not Brides, child brides frequently lose out on schooling and will result in lost human capital during their productive years, further trapping them into a cycle of poverty.
Governments and relevant organisations need to address the ongoing challenges above. By doing so, they will help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on gender gaps and inequalities.
How have governments responded to the crisis?
From a gender perspective, when the pandemic started, government responses across the region were far from ideal.
Some countries have failed to provide gender disaggregated data on COVID-19 infection and mortality, which is fundamental to the analysis of the gendered impact of pandemics. Furthermore, while many countries have provided basic data on infection and mortality rates, no countries in Asia have compiled sex-disaggregated data on people tested, hospitalised, and working in the healthcare sector.
These countries put less priority on gender when evaluating the damage of COVID-19, nor do they design gender inclusive programs. The Malaysian government even advised women to avoid nagging at their husbands in order to decrease family conflicts. One Indonesian minister also compared coronavirus to having a wife, and this comment was immediately criticised by the public.
With many healthcare workers being women or even mothers, policymakers have to make sure that women working on the frontlines are sufficiently protected by providing them with the basic instruments to work safely. The government also needs to alleviate the burden on mothers to take care of their children when they are working long hours while at risk.
However, local organisations are gradually bringing forward better policies for women, which will lead to better welfare and living conditions. The collaboration between Wahid Foundation and UN Women is one such example. It provides women with living grants to ensure their socio-economic power. There is also a national campaign encouraging men to share the household workload, allowing women to fulfil their professional obligations. Additionally, in regards to the increasing concerns of domestic violence in the midst of the pandemic, Vietnam has also launched a project with the Australian Government and UN agencies to protect children and women from domestic violence.
Some countries like Bangladesh have also come up with gender specific stimulus packages to help women entrepreneurs maintain their retail businesses. Bangladesh has allocated a separate budget for women entrepreneurs — around 5% out of the total stimulus for CMSMEs.
While this was an excellent initiative, many women still failed to obtain credits from the bank despite the eased criteria towards women. Possible reasons include women being afraid of accessing financial agencies as well as a lack of financial knowledge. Other barriers that may hamper their accessibility include collateral requirements and guarantee, rigidity of loan procedures, and trade licenses. In light of this, care packages should be delivered with as much accessibility as possible.
Aside from the initiatives above, governments should also consider adopting a universal healthcare system that allows women to have better access to healthcare and information about COVID-19. One leading example is the universal healthcare coverage of Singapore.
All these initiatives should include women's participation. Without their perspective, such initiatives can lead to further gender inequalities. Furthermore, it is possible that the rarity of female politicians in Asia may be one of the reasons behind the systematic marginalisation of women in public policy.
Until an effective vaccine for COVID-19 is made available, society worldwide will have to live with the pandemic for the foreseeable future. Governments must put into effect initiatives to close the gender inequalities that exist so that 30 years' worth of progress in gender equality won't regress when the pandemic is over.
Acknowledgements
The writing of this article has been made possible by the contributions of Assistant Professor Sonia Akter from the Lee Kuan Yew of Public Policy and Dahye Kim, PhD student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
(Photo: UN Women Asia and the Pacific)