Women at the Frontline: Coronavirus Pandemic Response - Essay Sample

Introduction

Coronavirus disease is a calamity that calls for high-priority responses. As the coronavirus pandemic escalates, a fundamental and coordinated reaction to healthcare, care strategies, and other actions are needed to weaken the economic and social effects of the catastrophe. Women are regularly at the forefront of care and health reaction in hospitals and healthcare centers, households and communities, and social services. The work of these women at the frontline of healthcare responses is to ensure the care, wellbeing, and flexibility of affected individuals. Economic outcomes will be extensive and will extend the present inequalities, with the inclusion of gender imbalances. The COVID-19 shadow shows an increase in domestic violence as women and girls are habiting homes with those who abuse them and women who hold most informal, insecure, and low paying jobs losing employment (John et al., 2020).

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Low Unemployment

There are apparent effects regarding the socio-economic traits of women. On the contrary, the jobs that are easy to tackle from home require higher education or more important skills. Therefore, low-skilled women are affected most, as they are at risk for economic groups. Grandparents’ help in child upbringing is likely more required in the lower social classes, where women are limited in delegating childcare. Besides, measures of isolation will particularly impact families who have little children more, because the care of those children needs considerable dedication than in the scenario of adults. Ultimately, workers who are in the informal section are most likely impacted more by the pandemic, and they are less protected by the government (John et al., 2020).

Moreover, workers in the informal sector are mostly women. These factors perhaps could designate that women will be more impacted in their jobs than men (Alon et al., 2020). Besides, women who have low skills from the lower classes and are in the informal sector are more exposed to the pandemic. On the contrary, to estimate the impact of the catastrophe on single mothers, one can use data from surveys that have questionnaires concerning the socio-economic surrounding of learners. Despite the dim outlook, coronavirus may cause some changes that are capable of curbing gender inequality in the labor sector for long. Women might be exposed or at risk as a result of occupational sex-separation. Generally, women comprise about seventy percent of healthcare workers, including midwives and nurses at the frontline of healthcare operations. They are the dominant group in health institutions service workers, including cleaners, catering, and laundry. In the course of their activities, these women in healthcare centers encounter the virus due to their exposure. In some places, women have little or no access to personal protective gear like personal protective equipment.

Decision-Making

In most cases, women are not involved in the national decision making on matters concerning the pandemic. There are Two channels identified through which the COVID-19 epidemic could elevate the shifting of expectations and social norms (Gausman & Langer, 2020). Firstly, through resilient work planning. Companies have started adopting the initiative of working from home to a large degree. Most probably, by learning through doing, some of the changes will stay for a long time. Hence, workers achieve flexibility. As mothers currently have an immense task of working and taking care of their children, they will undoubtedly profit relatively more from the changes in place more than men, secondly, through changes in how labor is divided at home and in the family setting. In most scenarios, women will be responsible for the large part of childcare both in schools and at home during the pandemic. Besides, there will be various families where there will be reversals of role models in the family. Most men will toil from home during this crisis and take care of children at the same time. Hence, men will experience more time in the responsibilities of children. The elevated exposure will probably have some persevering impacts on future childcare contributions. In detail, the substantial effects on labor division take place in families where men have temporarily changed into the leading providers of childcare. The previous case is where both couples work, but the father works from home forcefully during the pandemic while the mother still works away from home. Hence, expectations are that these changes will propel social beliefs towards prominent gender imbalance in doing house chores and providing childcare.

Health

Across the universe, women hold insecure jobs, earn and save less, and are probably absorbed in the informal sector. Women have limited access to community protections and are most of the single-parent families. Their potential to take in shocks from the economy is less as compared to that of men. Pandemics of health can make it more challenging for girls and women to get treatment and receive health services. Consequently, some other inequalities which accompany women and girls receiving treatments are ethnicity, race, and age—these inequalities impact the making of decisions to critical health information and services concerning COVID-19. Girls and women possess outstanding health requirements, but are less or not likely to access excellent health services, essential drugs, and vaccines (Gausman & Langer, 2020). Women and girls from rural places are most affected by the above issues. Social beliefs that are strict and stereotypic individuals can also restrict the ability of women to reach health services.

Providing reproductive and sexual services, including gender violence and maternal healthcare, is central to the rights, health, and welfare of girls and women. Diverting attention and essential resources from these provisions might lead to inflamed maternal morbidity and mortality, elevated adolescent pregnancies, risk of HIV, and sexually transmitted diseases. Some regions show that more women will often lose access to modern contraceptives regarding the current context of coronavirus disease pandemic.

Workload

The coronavirus disease global catastrophe has made it clear that the global formal economies and preservation of our daily activities are on the unpaid and unseen labor of girls and women. Many children are at home with schools closed, and they require substantial care from their parents, mostly women. Older and ill people in the family also need intensified care, which is mainly done by women. Apart from these strenuous activities, women are too overwhelmed by their healthcare services (Wenham et al., 2020). It is challenging for women to multitask all these childcare and healthcare services.

The economy in which care bis not paid is a critical centerpiece of COVID-19 retaliation. There are evident disparities in the gender dispersal of unpaid care tasks. Before coronavirus disease became a global pandemic, women were toiling trice as many domestic jobs and unpaid care as men. The invisible economy has tremendous and real effects on the formal economy and the lives of women. Concerning the pandemic, the elevated care work demand is widening presently existing imbalances in the gender labor division. The less clear components of the care economy come beneath increased stress, but the economic feedback does not account for them.

As healthcare facilities fight to contain the flow of coronavirus infections, the burden of healthcare on communities and families is always increasing daily. The ones affected by patients of COVID-19 might get early discharge to create space for others, but they will still need assistance and care at home (Wenham et al., 2020). Non-coronavirus related social services and health might be scaled back. Therefore, families are required to grant strong support to family members who have other diseases. Women are often at the frontline of responding to COVID-19 as the outstanding, less or unpaid care providers and the primary poorly paid social workers of health.

Closing of schools has led to more demand and strain on girls and women. A report given by UNESCO shows that most teachers and students are at home as the closures of schools expanded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As informal and formal childcare supply reduces, unpaid childcare amenities fall more steadily on women, because of social beliefs and existing workforce structure (Osland et al., 2020). Lack of support in childcare is specifically tricky for essential workers who have responsibilities of care. Study shows that many women hold a more significant percentage of the hospital, pharmaceutical, and grocery jobs.

In many countries, the care for and care by older individuals is essential in the face of coronavirus disease, more so as they progress in age. Women represent half of the population of the aged above seventy years and a more significant percentage of those aged eighty years and above globally. Women who are old tend to encounter low incomes in life and reduced pensions, with fewer chances of accessing care on their own. Women from all age brackets grant the most of care that is for the elderly. For this unpaid care to continue, it will depend on women’s wellbeing and health as well as their potential to reduce the contamination risks for persons under their supervision.

Adolescents

Adolescent girls are also affected by the burdening care work of COVID-19. The latest information reveals that teenage girls take more time on chores as compared to teenage males (Alon et al., 2020). Closing of schools means that girls are doing ore home chore but could also result in many girls dropping out before completing their studies. Girls living in poverty-stricken homes, those in rural places, and disabled girls are most likely to drop out of school before completing their education. Proof from the previous pandemics show that many girls do not resume their education even after the epidemic ends, and COVID-19 is not an exception.

Violence

Violence does not take place on the battlefield only; it also takes place in homes. Brutality against girls and women has increased globally as the pandemic of COVID-19 merges with social and economic strains and procedures to restrict movement and contact. Congested homes, drug abuse, less access to services, and decreased equal support worsened these scenarios. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, estimates are that one out of every three women encounters violence in their life. Most of these women are in their homes caught up with the people who abuse them (Alon et al., 2020). Even though it is very early for comprehensive information, there are many cases of elevated violence around the world against women. In some countries, these reported cases of gender violence have doubled. These increasing numbers are also most probably to reflect the worst circumstances only. If women cannot access private spaces, many would struggle to seek help either online or by making a call. Beyond the elevation in numbers, brutality against women is taking the form of new difficulty. With COVID-19 exposure used as a threat, abusers exploit women’s inability to as for assistance and escape.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the pandemic has hit the world at a period when the fresh critical orientation of our cultures and societies that it champions for is more important today than before. Many gender champions and feminists have already felt they were rushing to abolish misogyny and sexism. Then the COVID-19 crisis occurs. Very few women can speak their thoughts and are not involved in the decision-making processes (Alon et al., 2020). Most gender-based organizations and feminists are under more threat. The dialogue about gender-based...