Irma Clots-Figueras takes part in important panel discussion around Covid 19 and its impact on Women.
The Covid 19 pandemic has produced, in addition to a huge and painful loss of human life, an unprecedented recession throughout the world, with economic consequences and effect on population, children’s education, business creation. This panel held days before International Women’s Day examined specifically the effect of the pandemic on the issues pertaining particularly to Women.
“What has happened in the labour market? Will the pandemic help accelerate the transition to a work organisation that facilitates the reconciliation of work and family life? What consequences has the pandemic had in the family environment? Are there aspects of the public management of the pandemic that have conditioned its consequences and its impact on gender inequality?”
Professor Irma Clots-Figueras took part in a panel discussion around Covid 19 and its impact on Women hosted by the Ramón Areces Foundation in Spain.
Moderated by Virginia Sanchez-Marcos, it was was a conversation between Clots-Figueras and Rosa Ferrer (from UPF).
“We discussed the effects of Covid-19 on women’s labour market outcomes: women are more likely to be unemployed or leave the labour market. We also discussed the effect of school closures on both women and men in the household: the available evidence shows that women are the ones that have borne the brunt of the burden, increasing their hours of housework and childcare.” Clots Figueras explained “We also discussed whether online working would make the balance between work and family life easier. This remains to be seen, but a change of culture is needed and this takes time.”
“I also discussed the effects of COVID on women in developing countries, and spoke a bit about some research projects we have with other researchers in DeReCK. We also discussed whether countries with women leaders are better at handling the pandemic, but with the data available we cannot reach any conclusions yet.”
The panel discussion is available to view, but you’ll need to be a Spanish speaker!