Professor Kelly Pike highlights areas of acute threats COVID-19 poses to women workers of developing nations in her most recent article published in Project Syndicate co-authored with Beth English.
The economic fallout predicted by the International Labour Organization during the pandemic projected 195 million workers to be left unemployed worldwide. This becomes a greater crisis for developing and emerging economies when you consider things like clothing manufacturers from developed countries who outsource their work.
“Women make up over three-quarters of the global garment workforce, and thus have the most to lose from the downturn,” says Pike. “The garment industry was a ray of hope to many employers as a starting point in the economic workforce with the promise of skills and independence leading to a better quality of life.”
One of the key concerns also remains the broader scale of gender equality being hit, as the article describes, “COVID-19 crisis endangers not only these women’s jobs, but also the potential for gender empowerment more broadly.” The effect of female earnings contributing to a household income had its positive impacts ranging from strengthened gender relations to an effective decision-making ability. This lockdown is now leading to “a reported global surge in domestic violence – much of it triggered by stress, financial difficulties, and alcohol consumption.”
Pike emphasizes that programs and policies which focus on “wage-replacement benefits” to protect marginalized women who lack access to digital or cellular connectivity need to be in place to address issues ranging from “women’s shelters, emergency childcare provisions, access to proper feminine hygiene, and public-health”.
This will be the very least to start defending progress these women workers have made through generations of work since the recession emerging from this catastrophe seems more severe than the 2008 financial crisis while markets remain unpredictably shaky.
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