Women call for public policies aimed at meeting post-pandemic demands

No income, an excessive amount of housework, and more violence in the household: This is the reality of many women during the COVID-19 pandemic. These situations have always existed, but have seen a sharp increase since 2020. On International Women’s Day, celebrated today (Mar. 8), Agência Brasil talked to women who work to combat inequalities and support their communities.

“Human beings depend on this care. It is crucial to keeping society functional, and this falls predominantly under the responsibility of women. This is something society should acknowledge and rethink,” Sônia Coelho, from the Feminist Organization Sempreviva (SOF), argues. The sustainability of life, she went on, stems from the invisible and unpaid work done by women.

A SOF survey conducted in 2020 shows that 50 percent of Brazilian women started taking care of someone during the pandemic. The percentage is higher among black women, 52 percent. For white women, the rate stands at 46 percent. “In addition to carrying the burden of care work, they faced losses in income and employment and difficulties accessing social protection programs,” says Maitê Gauto, manager for Programs and Advocacy Manager at Oxfam Brazil.

In the third quarter of 2021, women’s labor force totaled 46.3 million—1.1 million fewer than in the same quarter of 2019, when it added up to 47.5 million, DIEESE (Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies) stated, in a special report for this day. 

This is believed to indicate that workers who left the labor market during the pandemic had not yet returned last year. The contrast is all the starker when race is brought to the comparison. The reduction among black women in the labor force in the period was 925 thousand, while non-black women amounted to 189 thousand.

“In roundtable discussions, I heard with women in the favelas, and when we talked about what was most affected by the pandemic, income was unanimous. Aggravated by it was also hunger, which predominantly affects women and children. It affects the whole population, but then we stop and think, who’s given the task of bringing food to the pan? When the pan’s empty, the children go and ask their mother,” she said.

Support

This is a reality that lawyer Letícia Lefevre has come to know firsthand. She is the co-founder of a community named Crianças Especiais (“Special Children”), which gathers 3.5 million people on Facebook. “Most of them are women—the real caregivers. Most are in extreme social vulnerability,” she declared. During the pandemic, she was divided between caring for her own children, working as executive secretary, and advising families in the group. “It’s a place of shelter, information, and support for them.”

In the view of licensed practical nurse Anna Ferreira, working on the front line of COVID-19 has brought additional challenges. “I work in home care service. Many things changed during the pandemic. There were no more routine visits. We would often go and immediately have to call an ambulance,” she recalls. The fear of the disease, bereavement, the days away from family members. “We were constantly doing what we could not to bring the virus home with us,” she remarked.

A collective issue

Even though a large number of problems can be found in the domestic sphere, Maitê Gauto went on to note, solutions lie in public policies. “[We want women to] have minimally adequate conditions to work and seek their own personal development.” Public policies are part of a national and collective agreement in which it is understood that it is a woman’s right to be able to go to work, to have a place to leave her children in safe conditions and cared for,” she stated.

In this connection, Maitê describes income transfer policies as key. “We must never forget, hunger is urgent. Hunger does not wait, so these policies are crucial to ensuring minimum conditions of survival and dignity to families under greater vulnerability.” Sônia Coelho agrees that one of the priority measures to tackle inequality in the post-pandemic context is universal basic income.

They also refer back to other policies, further mentioning that women are faced with gender-based prejudice at several levels, including with concern to social protection, social assistance, and early childhood education, “which guarantee conditions for women to develop their lives,” she pointed out.