An INED report points to significant inequalities in the professional lives of women and men due to the health crisis.
- Among women who were employed on March 1, 2020, only two out of three continue to work two months later
- Women less often have a room to work in quiet than men
- More women have had to give up their work than men
The health crisis has impacted the professional life of the French, but not in the same way according to gender, reveals a Colonel study from the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED).
Indeed, the professional situation of women has deteriorated considerably, sincethey have more often lost their jobs and their working conditions are worse than those of men : precisely, “among those who were employed on 1er March 2020, only two out of three continue to work two months later, compared to three out of four men. When they work, women work from home as much as men, but their conditions differ”note the researchers.
Women, more likely to have given up their jobs
In short, the inequalities linked to living conditions at home are flagrant: 48% of women in telework lived with one or more children at the time of confinement, compared to 37% of men. Unlike the latter, they less often have a room of their own and are often forced to work in living spaces where other members of the household interact. Only a quarter of women can isolate themselves in a quiet room to telecommute compared to 41% of men (29% of female managers compared to 47% of men and 25% of women with an intermediate profession compared to 37% of men).
Globally, “the women are more likely to have had to give up their professional activities than men, by choice or by constraint”comments Joanie Cayouette-Remblière, researcher at INED and co-signer of the study, quoted by the Huffpost. Likewise, the fact that “women earn on average less than men”leads to favor “spousal employment at the expense of their own. Men can therefore more easily separate their living spaces.”
Gender inequalities are widening again
Traditionally, women are more responsible than men for meals and household chores, an additional mental load during periods of confinement. INED points out the consequences linked to these inequalities on the professional life of women “who had to stop working, give up a contract or withdraw from a project they were working on, there will be no automatic recovery.”
In addition to losing purchasing power, they face a deterioration in their living conditions and an increase in inequalities with men: “Ihe pandemic and the economic crisis it has generated are accentuating the gaps with men, after half a century of reducing gender inequalities. Ultimately, the covid-19 pandemic reveals – at the same time as it accentuates them – the deep divisions that run through French society in terms of employment and working conditions.concludes INED.
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