Women at the time of the pandemic

women at the time of the pandemic The perks and pitfalls of teleworking


It has become common knowledge that the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions have even to a greater extent affected the already vulnerable categories. A case in point is made of the people and the children living in the underprivileged rural regions. All this time, the burden on women's shoulders has been heavier than before. Women are subject to payment inequality, anyway, let alone the fact that women take a double shift in the household. A recent survey carried by the FRAMES market research company highlighted the fact that seven of ten women have responded that the pandemic did affect their way of life. 65% of those women believe they have been affected by the isolation imposed by restrictions. We spoke to company representative Adrian Negrescu, who gave us details on the other parameters included in the survey.


Adrian Negrescu:


"58% of the women responded that working from home was more like a burden for them all this time, since nobody was that much prepared for working from home. We did not have computers; we did not have video cameras. Moreover, doing your job while at home, in a very small apartment, with the family, with the children close by, that makes focusing difficult, with the possibility of being efficient for work being no less difficult. It's interesting that a mere 26% of the women responded that teleworking was something positive."


In the rural areas but also in other underprivileged regions, the lockdown did not bring teleworking with it, yet it brought increased economic insecurity instead, as well as psychological uncertainty. FILIA Center is an organization focusing on the protection of women's rights. FILIA has monitored the situation of women at the time of the pandemic. 


FILIA's general manager, Andreea Rusu:


"As regards women, with whom we work in rural areas, they had no choice other than returning to the job they had abroad, or they had no more opportunities to be daily wage earners. They had to stay at home with their children, who could not go to school any more. .Also, their partners or husbands could not go to work either as, and we know that all too well, many people in the rural regions do not work on a labor contract or work on a fixed-term contract. (...) So the possibility for them to buy hygiene or food products, that was much more complicated than before. At national level, there are surveys revealing that when we had the state of emergency, two thirds of those who asked for unemployment benefits were women. Which points to the fact that, whenever a sanitary crisis occurs, it is also an economic or social crisis, with the women being the first to suffer because of that. (...) If children no longer go to school or if they have relatives who fall ill, women are the ones who tend to those people, so they no longer have time to function on the labor market and also look after their families. Which means that the condition of women has become even more precarious, money-wise, making them even more dependent on their partners."


Actually, there are cases when even the relationship women had with their husbands or their partners has been severely put to the test, in the last year. 


Adrian Negrescu:


"64% of the women responded that staying at home enabled them to get to know their partners better. Why? Before the pandemic-generated crisis, we know all too well that men but also women were busy with their jobs, from morning till evening. They usually met up in the evening and at weekends. Their interaction was somewhat limited, whereas working and living in the same environment round the clock, they got to notice things they had not been that keen on, before, which influenced the way the partners perceived each other. It was something that united some of them, while for other people, things went completely wrong (...) It is the reason why we had so many divorces in 2020, while in 2021, such a trend is ongoing. Romanians file for divorce much more than before the pandemic, against the backdrop of the crisis-caused problems, against the backdrop of disputes and differences of perception between men and women."


The pandemic also took its toll on the relationship mothers had with their children, given that official education was to a great extent performed from home, a home that all of a sudden became school, office, and home. Nevertheless, in spite of all hardships, for some of the women, having the chance to get closer to their little children was beneficial. 


Adrian Negrescu:


"Women who were already mothers got closer to the world of children even more. Children worked online, and dis their school duties from home. Parents and children spent more time together than before the pandemic. As for some of the mothers, they practically discovered their children, they discovered things about their children that they hadn't noticed before, otherwise, they had very little on their hands for that (...) In another move, we discovered that 54%of the childless women who participated in our survey say they would like to get pregnant even under the difficult pandemic-generated conditions. Which leads us into thinking that women discovered their wish to become mothers to a greater extent.


In another development, the research carried by the FILIA center has revealed the fact that extra help wouldn't have done any harm to anyone. 


Andreea Rusu:


"Women who found it hard to work from home, near their children, had to be offered an alternative. An alternative should have existed for them. There were various forms of aid offered by the authorities (such as the possibility to be put on furlough), but that was not enough. A great many women who responded to our survey mentioned the fact that they had no choice other than working at night or that they opted for a sick leave since they couldn't cope with their home duties. For this reason, stress has increased for women during the pandemic and the workload became greater, while for a great many of them it was very hard to strike a balance between the private and the professional life. "


Healthcare was another reason for concern, while the access to healthcare services was also made difficult, since the COVID-19 cases were the top priority. Every cloud has a silver lining, so the pandemic highlighted the importance of prevention, something which has been neglected by most Romanians, women and men. 


Adrian Negrescu:


"Women have become increasingly careful about their health. Which is a good thing. Interesting to note is the fact that before the pandemic, 61% of them responded they went to the doctor's when they had to, 21% responded they went to the doctor's only once a year, while a mere 11% had their quarterly medical check-ups. Now, in 2021, the well-being has become a top priority. 83% of the respondents believe that is.. the main priority in 2021. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, women were more interested in going to the doctor's to check if the problems they may have are different from the problems they knew about already."


We have so far presented a string of problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's sad to admit that the reported domestic violence across the EU has also been on the rise, especially during lockdown.




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Publicat: 2021-07-14 14:00:00
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