Essay on Mitigating COVID 19 Disproportionate Impact on Women

While the year 2020 was to mark the beginning of restructuring the widening inequality gaps, Instead, the world woke up to the realization of a devastating pandemic. Besides deepening the existing inequalities, the pandemic exposes the widening social, political, and psycho-social impacts. Studies show that minority groups, given their social and economic lifestyles characterized by low incomes, less education, physical and mental disabilities, are often the victims to chronic medical conditions (Tai et al., 2021). The limited access to reliable insurance covers exposes them as victims of the dispersive effects of a pandemic. Furthermore, underscoring these disparities is the deep-rooted structural and economic and social systems that shape our economies (Power, 2020). In measuring GDP, the economic indicators show less concern for unpaid work. This Interim Research by the director social policy, Jersey District Hospital examines analyses the current literature on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority groups, and effectively advises on opportunities and remedies to relieve the care economy and the wider gender inequality gaps.

Current research in sociology and the medical field continues to outline the pandemic’s effect on various demographics. The pandemic is widening the existing social class inequalities manifested in disability, income, opportunities, and income (Wilder, 2021). It seems to be exposing the fault lines of the community by exposing the hidden truth of the corrupt world we live in.

Today, about 60 percent of having jobs in the informal sector are in the care economy. At best, the informal economy has been known to provide just enough income to get going. At worst, it exposes women to poor lifestyles, effectively exposing them to a higher risk of ditching into poverty. As economic activities shut down, several workers continue to lose their work terms(Connor et al., 2020). Amidst these dynamics are women working on unpaid contracts continue to balloon. Under such circumstances, women’s rights and opportunities face increasing threats.

Often, the family crisis is typical with hardship economies. Data from the United Nations show that about one in every five women has engaged or been victimized by violence in the past few months (Wilder, 2021). Additionally, the same women have been trapped in houses and are straining to access basic services. In light of this information, we urge the government to take short and long-term measures to address women’s opportunities and expand social services. Besides testing our economic and healthcare systems, the pandemic tests human dignity in equal measures.

Each of us today works to earn a living, sustain our families, and to the extent possible, care for our desires and social communities that surround us. While the society at large certainly contributes to the GDP, many more activities involve every basic health and home service, including cooking, raising children, shopping, household management, and monitoring social health such as attending family relationships. Although most of this work is not done entirely by women, today, the unpaid economy is run by little over three-fourths of women and minority groups. In the United States, women account for 76 percent of the labour workforce provided in the healthcare sector (Connor et al., 2020; Power, 2020; Wilder, 2021). Furthermore, research also reveals that women are more likely to take on roles that involve close engagement with patients for very long hours, which subjects them to contracting COVID-19.

Outside of health and paid workforce, women make a majority of informal caregivers in most nations. In the United States, 65 percent of these caregivers are women. Studies suggest that about 85 percent of needs rely entirely upon these women. Furthermore, when women’s’ jobs are cut short by the pandemics, studies suggest losing about $5000 of annual revenue. Conversely, their male counterpart’s data show no correlation in payments with caregiving commitments (Wilder, 2021). Against this backdrop, we recommend the following policy directives to all stakeholders, starting from the government to healthcare planners.

The first intervention should ensure policy stakeholders recognize the need for inclusion. Gender insensitivity leads to less impactful interventions on women at best and directly negative to them at worst. COVID-19 remedies require inclusive responses in policy, deliveries that foster differential impacts of the pandemic on minority different genders. Given the majority workforce in healthcare in the US is composed of women, workforce interventions should cater to mental health risks and gendered occupational risk in equal measures. As an immediate response, workforce planners should foster financial and physical access to children’s healthcare and mental health clinics. The remedies should extend to include those working in supportive roles.

Healthcare policy strategists should extend drug delivery home service, telehealth services, and targeted insurance coverage for those in isolation to ensure remote delivery of healthcare services. Studies suggest that psychotherapy sessions with a mental health professional can help relieve anxieties in quarantine stations. Mental health professionals need to stay alert to the needs of minority sections working in healthcare (Power, 2020). Another possible remedy to isolation is shifting perspective from viewing isolation as loneliness to something close to solitude.

Whereas loneliness a state often associated marred with endless feelings of desolation, solitude is the home of peace and tranquility. Several creative works have emerged out of this state. The remedy to loneliness in humans rests squarely on our formidable abilities to stay peaceful and tranquil. Regrettably, these formidable abilities have been lost in today’s culture that often trades productivity for social and emotional wellbeing. More creativity is called for in developing new approaches, and it’s time health professionals embraced a modernized inclusive approach in dealing with psychological issues, including community-based and psycho-social interventions.

Healthcare infrastructure can leverage data systems to manage drug storage and procurement more efficiently Healthcare planners should leverage data in their stockpiling to ensure commodities like women’s contraception never hamstring emergency readiness plans. In developing novel coronavirus, the studies should include lactating women in their trials and searching for therapies (Duan & Zhu, 2020; Power, 2020). Finally, on the financial aid front, budgets on emergency aid funds should cater to differential dynamics in women as advised by the WHO. Financial plans should consider disparities in women and emerging needs from minority segments.

Intervention on levelling gender inequality effects can happen from all fronts. A huge call from researchers, non-governmental, policy strategists, and cooperate heads is now calling on the government to put economic stimulus measures that recognize emerging and current social needs affecting women and the wider care economy. Most developing countries have women working in the informal sectors, so government should draw out policies to ensure such workers are identified and compensated equitably (Power, 2020). Compensating for unpaid workers will require policymakers to focus on redistribution and rewarding care workers. Possible may include; government subsidies for those with basic needs and children to protect, extending cash transfer schemes and unemployment benefits to those laid off and shifting careers, and paid family and sick leaf.

Indeed, the pandemic has treated and continues to hamstring progress made on gender and equality. To mitigate the devastating toll the pandemic put on societies, we call upon governments and key stakeholders in the care economy to put women at the center of their initiatives. Starting from representation, mental health awareness, improving access to medication, and basic healthcare. Government interventions must package stimulus that targets women special needs, expansion of social safety nets including food banks, and related policies all need to rally towards recognizing the legitimacy of championing gender inclusivity, the care economy, and women’s rights in overcoming the pandemic and building prosperous communities adapted for contemporary and emerging needs of its people.

References

Connor, J., Madhavan, S., Mokashi, M., Amanuel, H., Johnson, N. R., Pace, L. E., & Bartz, D. (2020). Health risks and outcomes that disproportionately affect women during the Covid-19 pandemic: A review. Social Science and Medicine, 266, 113364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113364

Duan, L., & Zhu, G. (2020). Psychological interventions for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), 300–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30073-0

Power, K. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy, 16(1), 67–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2020.1776561

Tai, D. B. G., Shah, A., Doubeni, C. A., Sia, I. G., & Wieland, M. L. (2021). The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 72(4), 703–706. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa815

Wilder, J. M. (2021). The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 72(4), 707–709. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa959