The patriarchy pandemic: Did COVID-19 put a halt to gender equality?

While gender equality has made a leisurely progression in recent times, the pandemic, in certain ways, swiftly suspended these improvements.

According to a study conducted by an associate professor at Monash University, Carly Moulang, gender equality progress was seemingly interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the study, professional women found themselves shocked at how quickly everything reverted to patriarchal norms in their homes. Men’s work was prioritised over women’s work, and at a rapid pace, women were expected to adapt to a plethora of new responsibilities, such as remote learning and the return of previously outsourced tasks and other unpaid work.

Interviews were completed with 30 professional women about their work and home experiences. Emotional labour was an example of something that affected women more so during the pandemic. Women leaders in the workplace are often depended on and responsible for staff morale, team spirit, caring, mental health, and checking in on colleagues.

During the pandemic especially, emotional labour was a crucial role that employees depended on as it was such an unprecedented situation for everyone. Although it was a crucial aspect, emotional labour is largely unrecognised and unrewarded in the workplace and is often disregarded as a leadership aspect.

Many men in leadership delegated this role to women in both overt and covert ways, deeming them responsible for a number of employees’ wellbeing. They were often not recognised for this work, but it also placed a significant burden on them; couple that with caring for their own children at home, and it suddenly becomes a strenuous juggling act.

This juggling act seemingly grew more difficult for women when you consider the other work they were required to do. Working from home was often lobbied for by women, yet these calls remained unanswered; then when it became mandatory, there were no structured support systems in place to assist women in this new endeavour.

For example, women professionals had to adapt to a new working environment while also being primarily responsible for childcare, remote learning, caring for elderly parents, ensuring they had the necessities, which often became very scarce during the pandemic, and much more.

One woman reflected on their situation honestly and openly: “I had to juggle full-time work along with homeschooling primary and secondary-age children. My husband was able to continue working during most of the lockdown; therefore, the homeschooling was my responsibility.

“My work was busier than it has ever been. Therefore, I had to work extremely long days, and I was exhausted and burnt out. There was a blur between home life and work life, and I felt like work never stopped.”

All this pressure caused a number of issues for women professionals, such as financial stress, mental health issues, and marriage problems. Another respondent stated quite a disheartening revelation.

“I hope that I was the only one that came out of the pandemic with seriously damaged mental health, damaged career, broken relationship,” the respondent said.

Moulang concluded her research by calling for an accountability and acknowledgement check from organisations regarding the systemic problems that are inflicted upon women in the workplace.

“As a society, we must reflect on how the patriarchy and our man-made systems and male bias raised its ugly head during the pandemic, and how professional women – and all women for that matter – were impacted,” Moulang said.

“It’s time to proactively strategise on how to do better and ensure this doesn’t happen again, as it’s likely we will again face future pandemics and climate-change-related crises.”