Feminism In The Time Of Coronavirus

The lived reality of most women

Women leaders from different parts of the world are being hailed as the best leaders responding to the uncertainty and volatility of the Covid-19 pandemic. New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern checks in on her population through regular Facebook live sessions, Germany’s Angela Merkel uses her expertise as a scientist to develop one of the more successful strategies seen in Europe, and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen took early action and managed to keep coronavirus cases under control despite close proximity to China.
 

These women are using empathy, communication, transparency, decisive actions and trustworthiness in institutions to show how to lead a country through the crisis, and their efforts are being lauded. Analysts are asking why we don’t have more female leaders when we see how effective their leadership style is. Perhaps after this pandemic passes, we will see more acceptance of female leadership across the world.
 
However, it is still too early to bask in the glory of this feminism win if we take a closer look at the lived reality of millions of women across the world who don’t happen to be world leaders. Why is it that, despite having many more female world leaders surpassing their male colleagues in terms of performance, we have been unable to translate it into fairness for women on the ground. Is it due to the success of a handful of female leaders that we stopped pushing the needle?

Around the world, women are being exposed to Covid-19 in higher numbers since almost 70% of healthcare workers are females. Many are facing riskier living situations as reports of domestic violence increase in the last few weeks. And the rest are having to take on most of the burden of managing home and work life as offices shut down. If that’s not enough, the Malaysian health department was asking women to put on make-up at home to create pleasant living conditions for their husbands.

This begs the question: why has progress on women’s rights been so slow? If we managed to secure voting rights for women decades (if not, a century) ago, how is it possible that the lived reality of so many women is still defined by oppression, misogyny and discrimination. If the momentum for women’s rights lost steam once major demands, such as the right to vote or the right to own property, were fulfilled, the challenge for feminists today is all the more crucial. 

As countries begin easing the lockdown and slowly restarting their economies, now is a good time to reflect on what kind of a post-pandemic world we want to create. We must be aware of how our individual choices and decisions affect women. When markets reopen and harsh economic choices have to be made, who bears the brunt of these decisions? 

Often when companies scale back operations, they become more conservative on employee benefits, such as paid leaves, maternity leaves, the flexibility of working hours or on-site daycare facilities. If your company is making these choices, take a moment to think about how these cutbacks impact one gender in particular. 

Women have also occupied specific roles in companies that are seen as "non-essential", such as talent hunt, training management, secretarial roles, etc. If your company can no longer sustain its large operations, which departments are facing the axe?

Even in domestic spaces, this pandemic is having, and will continue to have, a disproportionately negative impact on women as compared to men. If a couple can no longer afford daycare facilities for their children, which parent will give up employment? Would it be the one who has historically been paid less for the same amount of work? Who has taken up the bulk of household chores since the entire family has been forced to stay home? When it comes to prioritising work versus domestic chores, who has the luxury to choose one over the other?

Knowing that the rules of the game are different for men and women, what can you do? If you are a manager, how about making sure that you guarantee equal pay for everyone, regardless of their gender. You can allow flexibility in working hours to both male and female employees so, as parents, they are both offered a choice in who stays home to take care of the child and, therefore, have the opportunities to continue building their career in times of crisis. 

Take a look at the gender distribution of your departments as well. Which kind of departments are you employing men in and which ones are dominated by women? Of these, which are considered 'non-essential'? Perhaps we need to redefine "non-essential" as the uncertainty and volatility of the post-pandemic world makes training and change management crucial to our economies’ survival. As the pandemic has forced us to pause and rethink established ways of doing work, think about reassigning greater value to work previously considered non-essential. 

If you are a teacher, how about making sure both parents are involved in their kids' homeschooling by requiring feedback from both parents? If you are in politics, how about making sure you frame regulations to offer equal chances and equal protection to everyone? If you are a journalist, how about making sure the experts you source in your stories are not just men? Make sure that you are not only covering women when they do something extraordinary, are world leaders, or in a distressful situation, but you are normalising their presence in the news as experts, analysts and storytellers. If you are a homemaker, how about giving yourself more credit for the amount of unpaid work you do at home? Model a house in front of your children where human dignity is valued equally for each gender. 

As managers, team workers, and even as parents and neighbors, we all have a collective responsibility to ensure that the post-pandemic world is more equal and fairer to those who suffered more from this pandemic than others.

Hira Siddiqui is a journalist and media trainer.  Connect Hira Siddiqui