Virus portends economic catastrophe for women

Over two months since it arrived in Kenya, the Covid-19 is no longer just a public health crisis but also an economic and social problem. A pandemic adversely affects everyone, but it is vital that we discuss how this crisis is likely to affect women more in the long run.

As it stands today, there is no single society in the world where we have achieved equality between men and women. This means that the drastic impact of this pandemic is being layered on top of existing inequalities and making them worse.

Several advocates have raised concerns about the spike in gender-based violence cases around the country, as people suffer economic stress. However, little has been told of the economic violence that has been dished out to many women because of Covid-19. After weeks of restricted movement and a curfew, the Kenyan economy is in a free fall and as in many instances, women’s independence and wellbeing will be a silent victim of the pandemic.

The raft of economic stimulus policies that have been issued by the president mostly addressed systems that predominantly favoured men.

Take working from home for example; this is a privilege that disproportionately favours formal sector workers, a category that is dominated by men. As mentioned earlier, there are various gender gaps that already exist in our economy and which provide important insight into the tough road ahead for many women in Kenya beyond this crisis.

Despite women forming 52 per cent of the population, they only occupy about 36 per cent of wage employment in Kenya. This represents a gap of about 805,000 jobs, 28 percent less than the jobs that men occupy.

This gap widens to 39 per cent when you look at casual wage labour. Over the past five years, the data paints a grim picture of lack of progress in gender equality. The gender gap in wage employment has barely improved over the last five years, with women consistently occupying about 30 per cent less of these jobs than men. It’s worth asking the question of whether we could go from a flat line to a decline as Covid-19 lockdown measures and curfews continue to disrupt the economy.

Looking deeper into how various industries have been affected by the coronavirus, the plight of women gets worse. Social distancing as a safety measure has disrupted the hospitality, retail, wholesale and tourism industries on which many women rely for their livelihoods.

In the horticulture industry where women constitute at least 75 per cent of the workforce, incomes have been decimated as a result of dormant export markets. The textile industry which employs an 80 per cent female workforce is struggling as a result of heavy dependence on material inputs from China.

DOMESTIC RESPONSIBILITIES

Additionally, movement restrictions and school closures by the Kenyan government have led to an increase in women’s unpaid care and domestic responsibilities at home. Research shows that women spend more than triple the amount of time on any care (child care, house care, etc.) than men.

Even for the women in the formal sector who have the advantage of working from home have their focus and productivity greatly hampered by domestic responsibilities. So while dad may be doing some of his best work like Isaac Newton did during the plague, mum is busy running after her little infant and begging them to cooperate so that she can get a little work done.

In many cases, it’s also not just about social norms, but about practicality. A lot of times unpaid care for many households simply boils down to who is paid less and who has more flexibility in their work schedule. As such, the structure that gives rise to the gender pay gap in Kenya, where women earn 45 per cent less than men, puts many women in disadvantageous positions.

As we look forward to the economy rebounding, we should avoid assuming that we shall all recover equally. Even after the economy reopens, women will still find themselves in hardship. It’s important to learn from African societies that have been ravaged by pandemics before. During the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo and West Africa a few years ago, everyone’s income was affected by the measures put in place to curb the disease.

However, there is solid evidence that men’s income returned to what they had made pre-outbreak faster than that of women. Moreover, with a depleted job market, men who were in other more lucrative industries started competing for roles traditionally filled by women. This means there will be a scarcity of job openings available for women to take because they will lag behind in being able to access those jobs.

The evolution of Covid-19 in Kenya also bears other stark similarities to what was seen in the Ebola epidemic. Kenyan activists are reporting that domestic violence cases have shot up sharply, affecting women’s wellbeing. Local media reports are also already pointing out that women are dying in child birth due to the diversion of resources to battling the virus, patients being afraid to go to hospital and stringent measures such as the curfew.

Makueni County, for example, lost 15 mothers to maternal deaths in 2019. The county lost 4 mothers in one week recently, according to the Daily Nation. If we are not careful, we could end up like Sierra Leone, where during the Ebola outbreak, more women died of obstetric complications than the infectious disease itself.

If the pandemic persists without these unique scenarios being addressed, women may still be struggling to recover from this pandemic long after it is over. Society either cares about equality all the time or none of the time. The effects of Covid-19 will be global and long-lasting, economic as well as medical. At a time when women-led governments such as Taiwan and Germany are managing Covid-19 better than other countries, women’s great contribution towards society’s wellbeing has been highlighted. Moreover, it also offers an opportunity; this could be the first outbreak where gender differences are recorded, and taken into account by researchers and policy makers. My hope is that it brings to light the huge subsidy women provide to Kenya’s economy.

Patricia is the consumer research and market lead at OdipoDev.