The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by widespread childcare and school closures. Emerging evidence – primarily from high-income countries – suggests that these changes increased women’s time in unpaid care, which may be a particular challenge for women with paid employment. OBJECTIVE:...
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Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
2024-08-01
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| Series: | Demographic Research |
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| Online Access: | https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/51/15 |
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| author | Caroline Krafft Irene Selwaness Maia Sieverding |
| author_facet | Caroline Krafft Irene Selwaness Maia Sieverding |
| author_sort | Caroline Krafft |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by widespread childcare and school closures. Emerging evidence – primarily from high-income countries – suggests that these changes increased women’s time in unpaid care, which may be a particular challenge for women with paid employment. OBJECTIVE: The paper examines how women’s unpaid care responsibilities and employment changed during the pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), specifically: (1) How did the closure of schools and nurseries impact married women’s time spent in care work? (2) How were exits from employment related to care responsibilities? and (3) How did changes in employment vary by pre-pandemic type of employment? METHODS: This paper uses multiple waves of phone surveys from five MENA countries. Country-specific information on school modalities is a key covariate. The analyses present both descriptive statistics and multivariate models for outcomes of care work and employment. Analyses also include fixed-effect logit models, with woman fixed effects, leveraging the multiple observations per woman in the panel. RESULTS: When schools were totally closed during the pandemic, married women with children under age 18 reported performing more care work. However, exits from employment during the pandemic were not increased by women’s care responsibilities. CONTRIBUTION: Even before the pandemic, structural inequalities pushed women in MENA – particularly married women with young children – out of the types of employment that were difficult to reconcile with care responsibilities. These findings underscore the importance of local employment conditions in mediating the impact of the pandemic on gender inequality. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-79dfc951ff2d474da59608f5f6313cd0 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1435-9871 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-08-01 |
| publisher | Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Demographic Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-79dfc951ff2d474da59608f5f6313cd02025-08-20T02:06:35ZengMax Planck Institute for Demographic ResearchDemographic Research1435-98712024-08-01511550155210.4054/DemRes.2024.51.155957The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North AfricaCaroline Krafft0Irene Selwaness1Maia Sieverding2University of Minnesota Twin CitiesCairo UniversityAmerican University of BeirutBACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by widespread childcare and school closures. Emerging evidence – primarily from high-income countries – suggests that these changes increased women’s time in unpaid care, which may be a particular challenge for women with paid employment. OBJECTIVE: The paper examines how women’s unpaid care responsibilities and employment changed during the pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), specifically: (1) How did the closure of schools and nurseries impact married women’s time spent in care work? (2) How were exits from employment related to care responsibilities? and (3) How did changes in employment vary by pre-pandemic type of employment? METHODS: This paper uses multiple waves of phone surveys from five MENA countries. Country-specific information on school modalities is a key covariate. The analyses present both descriptive statistics and multivariate models for outcomes of care work and employment. Analyses also include fixed-effect logit models, with woman fixed effects, leveraging the multiple observations per woman in the panel. RESULTS: When schools were totally closed during the pandemic, married women with children under age 18 reported performing more care work. However, exits from employment during the pandemic were not increased by women’s care responsibilities. CONTRIBUTION: Even before the pandemic, structural inequalities pushed women in MENA – particularly married women with young children – out of the types of employment that were difficult to reconcile with care responsibilities. These findings underscore the importance of local employment conditions in mediating the impact of the pandemic on gender inequality. https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/51/15care workCOVID-19Middle EastNorth Africawomen's employment |
| spellingShingle | Caroline Krafft Irene Selwaness Maia Sieverding The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa Demographic Research care work COVID-19 Middle East North Africa women's employment |
| title | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa |
| title_full | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa |
| title_fullStr | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa |
| title_short | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa |
| title_sort | impact of the covid 19 pandemic on women s care work and employment in the middle east and north africa |
| topic | care work COVID-19 Middle East North Africa women's employment |
| url | https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/51/15 |
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