Psychological Effects of the Pandemic on Women

By Lea Laue and Michael Palocz-Andresen

Measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic largely brought public life to a standstill from mid-March 2020 around the world. To slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, businesses, schools, and universities were temporarily closed, as were workplaces and cultural institutions. Cancellation of major events and contact restrictions in private spaces, for example, were also aimed at minimising the transmission risks that occur at gatherings and helping to break chains of infection. In this report, the impact of the pandemic and the measures on different groups in society will be addressed¹.

Introduction – Women in the Pandemic

The corona pandemic especially leads to problems in those professions that are carried out mostly by women.

This is not only the case in Germany. While, in Germany, more than 75 per cent of people working in caring professions are female, the figure worldwide is also just over 70 per cent. Moreover, for cultural reasons, the care of relatives is mostly provided by women. This is a phenomenon that can be observed both in Western society and in other parts of the world. In general, it can be said that the poorer the level of healthcare in a country, the more often such tasks are taken on by women.

Conservative family stereotypes may also help to promote this. Especially in families where women are responsible for childcare and child-rearing, women are more likely to be called upon to care for parents and in-laws later in life. In Germany, too, 68 per cent of women take on this task without being paid for it. This problem is further exacerbated by the lack of childcare options, which denies women the opportunity to work because they have to take care of children and the household. At this point, the gender care gap can also be cited to create an international reference. On average, women perform 52.4 per cent more unpaid care work than men; that is, 87 minutes more per day¹.

This is just a brief overview of the basic problem in nursing and its impact on women, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Women, in particular, experience a special burden during a time of pandemic, we explain further below, which is why we have focused on this topic.

Figure 1 presents the structure of the report.
The first question is to what extent the situation for women has changed since the beginning of the pandemic and what the consequences are for mothers.

Although pupils can now go back to regular schooling and children can also go to childcare facilities, the rule for the last year and a half has been a model of alternating or online teaching. Children often cannot cope with the tasks set by the school without help and therefore need intensive assistance from their parents.

Thus, parents and especially mothers often find themselves in the situation of having to take the place of childcare for younger children and teacher for school-age children – and this in addition to their jobs and usual domestic duties, which are also largely taken on by women in families (see figure 2).

Women and their Working Lives

In general, the coronavirus pandemic has also significantly changed working life. In Germany, 24 per cent of employees were working from home in January 2021. This figure had dropped slightly from 27 per cent in March 2020. In contrast, before the crisis, the percentage of employees in home offices was only 4 per cent. But due to the virus’s seasonal character, the number of cases of infections will rise again, which will lead to an increasing number of employees once again working from home.²

In general, the home office is very popular among employees. Thus, 80-90 per cent of people in the home office state that they rate this positively. A large proportion of them even consider that they would like to continue working only from home in the future, or at least have only a few days of compulsory presence in the office. Only 15 per cent of respondents say they would like to return to the office completely. Thus, the coronavirus pandemic is increasing the pressure on companies and legislators to enable home office.³

The situation in other European countries looks similar after the first wave of coronavirus in summer 2020. In Paris, only 26 per cent of employees are still in the home office. Also, in Milan and Madrid, two-thirds are already back on site again.

Nevertheless, there is also criticism of the transition to home office. On the one hand, the danger of loneliness increases and, on the other, the permanent availability of employees increases. Home office is not an option for all employees. Another downside is that women who work in a home office experience an additional burden of unpaid care work. In addition, there are concerns that home offices lead to a confusion between private and working life, so that working and rest times, for example, are not tracked correctly. What long-term consequences flexible digital working can have if the boundaries between work and private life become blurred is a question that is currently being asked.⁴

But what exactly is the state of womenʼs and mothers’ working lives? In April 2021, in the course of a new Infection Protection Act, the German Bundestag passed a home office obligation for all companies, which applied until 30 June 2021.⁵
In order to classify the working situations for women during the pandemic, one must look at the situation before the pandemic. In 2019, around 74.4 per cent of mothers were employed, 66.7 per cent of whom worked part-time.⁶

In Germany, 70 per cent of people working in social as well as care professions are female. If you look at nursing and geriatric care, it is striking that the percentage of women working in geriatric care is 83 per cent, and in nursing care around 80 per cent.⁷ Working with people infected with coronavirus in nursing homes and hospitals, for example, increases the risk of infecting oneself and oneʼs family with the virus, which can be a psychological burden for caregivers on the one hand and a real physical danger for them and their families on the other. Besides that, sick care workers increase the workload for remaining healthcare workers.⁸

Figure 4 shows the number of practising nurses per 1,000 inhabitants and the income per capita in different countries of the world.

Further, about 26 per cent of employed women in Germany work in the low-wage sector, i.e., they earn less than €11.05 per hour.

Although the low-wage sector in Europe has decreased steadily over the past 15 years to an average of 15 per cent, the distribution within Europe varies significantly.
While the low-wage sector in Portugal has shrunk from 20.7 per cent to around 4 per cent during this period, the low-wage sector in Belgium has grown by 7 per cent. Thus, post-Soviet countries in Europe, in particular, often have a low-wage sector share of more than 20 per cent, closely followed by Germany.⁹

On the other hand, in Germany, the percentage of men working in the low-wage sector is only 16 per cent. In particular, women with jobs in catering or event management lost their jobs. Corona-related unemployment notably affects women; 85 per cent of those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic are female.¹⁰

Additionally, during the pandemic, many women have swapped their full-time jobs for part-time work in order to cope with the immense burden of childcare, teaching, and their job. This results in a wide range of problems that have a strong negative impact on the independence, (social) mobility, and psyche of women in the pandemic.

In such cases, women will receive less pension in the future and will be less financially secure and independent in the event of divorce from their more financially stable partners. Especially in cases of domestic violence, this lack of financial independence can be a womanʼs undoing.

Domestic Violence during the Pandemic

In Germany, it is assumed that domestic violence has increased by a total of 10 per cent. However, the number of unreported cases is much higher. This is suggested by the sharp increase in the number of calls to the help line/support hotline last year. The German support hotline “Violence against Women” registered a growth from about 850 calls per week to about 1,000.

Due to contact restrictions, school closures, and the transfer to the home office, many “control mechanisms” fall away. On the one hand, women often turn first to work colleagues, friends, and relatives in such situations. On the other hand, changes in behaviour or injuries can be noticeable to people one sees regularly, who could possibly broach the subject with the woman in question. Factors such as money worries, being at home all the time, and lack of contacts can also lead to more aggressive behaviour and thus to more domestic violence.¹¹

Furthermore, due to the pandemic, women’s shelters are able provide less than half of the number of places. This was mainly due to the distancing rules and a 14-day quarantine that women had to observe there, in order to participate in shelter life.

Nevertheless, the expected rush to the women’s shelters did not occur in the first lockdown. This was due to the lack of opportunity to escape from the control of their partner. It was not until the relaxation of the restrictions in June 2020 that the numbers of people seeking help in women’s shelters increased again.¹²

Of course, these problems do not only result from the pandemic. Rather, the pandemic has exacerbated existing, systematic problems such as domestic violence against women, old-age poverty, and inequitable pay. This leads above all to immense psychological stress. During the pandemic, 45 per cent of women in Germany stated that they had reached their emotional, psychological, and physical limits due to the multitude of tasks.

This can lead to depression and psychosomatic disorders. In addition, mothers usually seek help at a very late stage, because of the enormous number of tasks they have to master. This tense situation for mothers can also lead to the stress they feel being passed on to the children, which leads to further stress for them.¹³

The situation is similar in the rest of the world. Data collection is often very complex, so that there is no reliable (in the meaning of concrete numbers) data on domestic violence or the psychological burden on women during the coronavirus crisis. Even in developed countries, the collection of data relating to acts of violence against women is slow. Thus, these statistics give only an indication of the extent of domestic violence. Nevertheless, it can be said that the greater the systemic injustice towards women in a country, the higher the frequency of domestic violence.

Relation between Women and Children during COVID-19

Surveys during the pandemic make it clear in any case that during the crisis it is mainly women who take care of raising children and doing housework. In a survey on behalf of the Bertelsmann Stiftung shortly after the first lockdown, 51 per cent of mothers said that they would predominantly take care of the children’s home schooling. Only 15 per cent of fathers said that about themselves. In other tasks, the burden on women was even more pronounced; around two-thirds of them said that they usually did the general housework and cooking.

Women and girls who are already affected by institutionalised poverty, racist structures, and other forms of discrimination are particularly at risk. They are more likely to become infected with coronavirus and to die more often from the virus, and are more affected by the secondary effects of the pandemic. For example, in the UK, black women are 4.3 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than white women.¹⁴
One important study examined the effects of the pandemic on various aspects of social inequality in Hungary, including gender inequality, especially with regard to changes in the distribution of repetitive work (childcare, care for the elderly, and housework).

Scientists focused on the most important findings on gender-specific differences in childcare and care for the elderly under the conditions changed by the lockdown situation. Respondents with at least one child aged 18 or younger were asked to state the number of hours they spent with the children before and during the lockdown measures, such as playing, reading, studying, talking, dressing, feeding. Participants with an elderly relative in need of care were asked to state the number of hours they spent on care, in addition to personal hygiene such as washing and changing nappies, shopping, and the like. The respondentsʼ statements were treated as subjective assessments of the time spent on care-related tasks.¹⁵

The number of hours spent on childcare by men without paid work is significantly higher than that of men with work, suggesting that men are willing to step in, at least temporarily, if they have no other day-to-day obligations. It is different with women. They increased the time of care to a similar extent, regardless of whether or not they were in paid work. And finally, working from home compared to working outside the home was reflected in a higher number of hours in childcare, regardless of whether the person was a man or a woman. The age of the children also played a role, and more time was spent on children under the age of 12.¹⁶

The central finding with regard to childcare is that women with a university degree spend significantly more hours looking after their children than men with a similar degree, also in comparison to women and men with less education. Similarly, women who work from home devote more time to their children than men who work from home or women and men who work outside the home.¹⁷

Support of Elderly People by Women during COVID-19

Worldwide, 70 per cent of the workforce in social and care professions consists of women. In addition, they do on average three times as much unpaid care work as men. Since women are increasingly caring for the sick, be it work or unpaid within the family, they are more exposed to the virus and run a high risk of infection. In addition, this burden of care also entails considerable psychological stress.

According to the German Federation of Trade Unions, DGB, the proportion of women working in care is over 80 per cent. Women are still predominantly to be found especially in the care of the elderly. But, despite their disproportionate share, according to the DGB, they sometimes earn less than their male colleagues in similar positions.

In nursing, for example, women receive an average of 10 per cent less. In addition to relatively low pay, there are also low opportunities for advancement, and stressful working hours. Many have now quit their jobs. The consequences are problems with inefficient health services, especially for elderly people.

In Germany, the wage gap between men and women is particularly pronounced compared to other European countries. For years, the so-called gender pay gap was over 20 per cent. More recently, it has fallen slightly to 19 per cent, according to the Federal Statistical Office. The pay gap is most pronounced in the entertainment industry at 29 per cent, followed by scientific and technical services and the health and social services with an average of 25 per cent. The Federal Statistical Office explains the differences primarily through structural factors. For example, women would work more often in poorly paid jobs and less often in well-paid management positions.

Family members supported their older relatives both before and during the pandemic. They made up about half of the sample, a total of 911 participants. The results were quite surprising: women and men reduced support for their older relatives, although the decline was less pronounced for men. In addition, there were also significant differences within the gender groups.

While women of all categories devoted less time to their older relatives, the reduction was less the higher the women’s level of formal education. The picture was completely different for men: men with a low level of education even increased their commitment, while it fell for men in the other categories – albeit to a lesser extent than for women. Similarly to childcare, the situation in the labour market also influenced the time spent on care for the elderly. There were no significant differences between the sexes among the employed.¹⁸

However, among women unemployed or inactive, the number of hours devoted to helping the elderly fell, while it increased among men. This could also be explained by the fact that the lockdown measures required (additional) forms of support: shopping, tidying up and rearranging, and repairs.¹⁹ These activities can be more easily reconciled with common notions of masculinity, which means that society expects men to do more physical and practical work than caring. So, women spend more time caring for the elderly, but the gender gap in this regard narrowed during the pandemic. Men, especially younger men and men outside the labour market, devoted more time to caring for the elderly.²⁰

Figure 7 presents the comprehensive care system
of communities.

Conclusion

In the corona pandemic, women are exposed to extraordinary professional and home-work stresses in immediate care. Many women feel inadequately prepared for this situation. However, the majority of them were confident that they would be able to cope with everyday working and family life. Politicians, society, and managers should identify and respond to the needs of women, especially regarding the load with children and elderly people.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Jane Lethbridge, University of Greenwich, Faculty of Business Great Britain for years of support for the above seminar series at the Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany.

This article was originally published in The European Financial Review 02 July 2022. It can be accessed here: https://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/psychological-effects-of-the-pandemic-on-women/

About the Authors

Lea Laue has been studying law as a major and business administration as a minor at Leuphana University Lüneburg since 2019. Her current focus is on energy law. In addition, she has been working for the Competition and Regulation Institute at Leuphana University as a student assistant since 2020.

Michael Palocz-Andresen is working as a guest professor at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla México. Since 2018 till 2022 he was a Herder-professor supported by the DAAD at the TEC de Monterrey. He became a full professor at the University West-Hungary Sopron, a guest professor at the TU Budapest, the Leuphana University Lüneburg, and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is a Humboldt scientist and an instructor of the SAE International in the USA.

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