Women more likely to lose jobs due to COVID-19 pandemic: Experts

(AFP): Experts have claimed that women are more likely than men to lose or quit their jobs because many of them work in the badly exposed services sector.

According to an international report, the experts have claimed that the economic shock of the coronavirus has affected women more than men because many of them work in vulnerable low-paying workplaces like bars, conference venues, hairdressing salons, hotels, pubs, and restaurants, which faced extensive shutdowns.

Experts said, “School closures during lockdown have exacerbated the situation because more women than men tend to care for and teach their children.”

The services sector, covering areas like hospitality and leisure, has been ravaged by lockdowns imposed by governments around the globe in order to halt the spread of the disease.

Cambridge University economics lecturer Christopher Rauh said, “In the UK and the US, women more likely to lose their jobs because they are more likely to work in the services sector.”

The Financial Times also wondered whether the COVID-19 health emergency has set women back decades. “Is the coronavirus crisis taking women back to the 1950s?” the daily business newspaper asked in a comment piece this month.

In contrast with the current health emergency, men were at the sharp end when the notorious 2008 global financial crisis sparked the previous global recession, which badly hurt production sectors such as construction and manufacturing.