Gender equality takes a knock during pandemic

Governments, companies and investors must do more to remedy the harm done to gender equality by Covid-19, experts told a panel at the Reuters Next conference on Thursday.

“It is one step forward and three steps back,” said Carlien Scheele, director of the European Institute for Gender Equality. Women take on the bulk of the additional caregiving responsibilities during pandemic lockdowns.

Women have been hit harder than men by job losses around the world due to the pandemic and their employment levels are likely to recover more slowly as they continue to do more unpaid care work, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has forecast.

“If women are not part of the workforce, that will have a ripple effect in the whole economy, the whole society,” said Stephanie Oueda Cruz, head of gender, diversity and inclusion at IDB Invest, part of the InterAmerican

Development Bank.

That could mean a 14% hit to economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean in the next three decades, Oueda Cruz added.

Some women stuck at home made money during lockdowns by baking and cooking, according to Melissa Siska Juminto, COO of Tokopedia, an Indonesian e-commerce company, which helps local businesses sell products online.

“They made use of this opportunity to sell online and build a brand,” she said, adding that Tokopedia had seen 1.5 times more women starting businesses during the pandemic than men.

However, Oueda Cruz said women-led businesses often struggle to raise funds, a problem IDB Invest is trying to tackle, including by launching “gender bonds” to finance projects aimed at promoting the empowerment of women.

At Tokopedia, lockdowns coincided with a baby boom so the company decided to introduce more generous maternity and paternity leave and make it possible to bring children into the office by providing a staffed playroom.

Scheele said companies need to encourage men as well as women to use the flexible working practices that look set to stay after the pandemic.

“Women tend to use those positive aspects of flexibility to care more in the household, whereas men use the flexibility to spend more hours on work,” she said.