Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, undersecretary-general of the UN and executive director of UN Women, said at the G20 summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last month that according to the latest estimates, by next year, an additional 47 million women and girls will have been pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic. A total of 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day and gender gaps caused by extreme poverty will widen further.
By 2030, there could be 121 women in poverty, for every 100 poor men globally. Those worst affected would be females 25 to 34 years old, ages when many are raising families, she said.
Moreover, unpaid care by women in families and communities has long been taken for granted, she said. In some countries, women perform 11 times more unpaid care than men. This "invisible" work contributes at least $10.8 trillion a year to the global economy, and societies and economies have depended on it.
"During the pandemic, with women continuing to bridge the gap as schools, childcare and other services are shut down or scaled back, they bear the brunt of lost or reduced paid work," Mlambo-Ngcuka added.
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Widespread impact
Projections from the International Labour Organization show that 140 million full-time jobs may be lost due to COVID-19, with women's employment 19 percent more at risk than men's.
"The global recession and associated loss of income makes it even harder for women to escape abusive relationships at a time when intimate-partner violence is clearly on the rise in the shadow of the pandemic and increased violence of all types," Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Melissa Williamson, co-chair of the Early Care and Education Task Force at the South Texas Trauma Consortium in the United States, said the pandemic has had a far-reaching impact on early childhood educators. Many women in this field have had to leave their jobs because their schools have closed or they have to stay home to take care of their children.
"The field of early education is predominantly run by women. As a result, they have suffered more job losses in this industry than men," she said.
Williamson suggested that women use their ingenuity to create opportunities for themselves.
"COVID-19 has exposed us to many changes, so change with it. Be sure to move your talent with the times," she said.
Jille Natalino, 32, an art director in San Diego, US, said she is worried about the pandemic. She now works online and spends numerous hours taking part in video calls.
"I don't have children, so I'm lucky that I don't have to juggle childcare and work," she said. "But I have seen many families where the mother has to take on more responsibilities around the house while either stepping back at work or stopping it altogether."
She said the good news is that at her company many men have offered to split childcare duties with their wives so that both partners can pursue their careers on an equal footing.
Denise Bolandrina, marketing manager at Global Blue, a tax-free shopping company headquartered in Nyon, Switzerland, lives in Bergamo, Italy, a city badly affected by the pandemic.
She said COVID-19 has radically changed people's way of thinking and acting.
"I've lost a lot of people around me and this has had a strong psychological impact, but I think it has also been a precious opportunity to appreciate what we usually take for granted－life, family, friends, work and the freedom to do what we want and go where we want," she said.
Bolandrina said she used to divide each day between work and family, and she has not had a lot of time to take care of her daughter.
"Working mainly from home during the pandemic is a great opportunity, but also a challenge, as it is not easy to make children understand that you are there with them but you are also working. Sometimes, I'm doing video calls with my daughter trying to appear on the screen or constantly asking for a sweet while I'm talking," she said.
Bolandrina added that her job has always been fundamental to her work-life balance, as it gives her the opportunity as a woman to feel "complete" with her family, but she said it is not easy to mix work and life.
"When you are a working woman and a mother, you always have the feeling you are not doing enough on one front or the other," she said.
Bolandrina said COVID-19 has had a deep impact on her company, as the business is mainly linked to international travelers. However, the company was quick to come up with a set of solutions to help physical shops.
It used its knowledge of the retail sector to accelerate links between online and offline shopping to support traders in a rapidly changing market, she added.
"Global Blue has a lot of female employees and I think it is a forward-thinking company when compared to others in Italy," she said.
She added that working hours for most of the company's teams and those working in the tourism industry have been reduced as a result of the pandemic, and it is always difficult for women to combine work and family.
"You often hear people, sometimes women, saying that you are working too much, and as you cannot do both jobs properly, you are not doing enough for your family. No one would say this to a man, as 'working' is his role. The COVID-19 situation has amplified this perception," she said.
Bolandrina added that although times are changing, the world is still far from achieving gender equality.
"Above all in Italy, there is no specific help and support for women and the situation they find themselves in. Families are supported by grandparents if they are lucky, otherwise they have to pay for everything," she said.
