{"id":268288,"date":"2020-05-12T10:32:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T14:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/counting-the-ways-covid-takes-a-toll-on-women\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:00:12","slug":"counting-the-ways-covid-takes-a-toll-on-women","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2020\/05\/counting-the-ways-covid-takes-a-toll-on-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting the ways COVID takes a toll on women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the 1970s, a feisty New Zealand legislator named Marilyn Waring<\/a> made headlines around the world. Her election campaigns were magnets for energetic local volunteers in a mostly rural agricultural constituency. Who were the volunteers? Primarily women who devoted long hours to caring for children, tending vegetable plots, managing sheep and dairy operations, and preparing meals for relatives, friends, and farm employees.<\/p>\n

Waring was outraged that calculations of New Zealand\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) did not consider the extensive political, social and economic contributions of female workers in her area \u2013 because their labour was unpaid. She quit politics to study the valuation or, more accurately, devaluation of women in global accounting systems.<\/p>\n

In 1988, Waring published a groundbreaking book called If Women Counted<\/em><\/a>. It showed how postwar efforts to measure economic growth reflected what a group of predominantly white, privileged men in the 1940s chose to value. Her study demonstrated<\/a> the degree to which standard national and international accounting systems rendered invisible any work that fell outside formal, currency-based transactions. By adopting gauges such as GDP, she argued, the United Nations and its member states effectively discounted half the Earth\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

With full credit to Waring\u2019s feminist economics as well as the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, it\u2019s worth counting the ways this pandemic has inflicted additional discounts on women as a group.<\/p>\n

First are data indicating heightened threats of emotional and physical abuse. During the lock-down in China, neighbours said they heard more frequent and more violent interactions than usual in their buildings. Calls to domestic violence hotlines have risen markedly in multiple countries facing the COVID-19 threat including Canada, France, Spain and the UK. Publicly available information shows surging sales of items that directly endanger the lives of adults and children shuttered at home with minimal opportunities to leave. The North American trade in guns, ammunition and liquor, for instance, has spiked since controls were imposed to limit the spread of the virus. Yet little public or governmental attention has been directed toward the specific gender consequences of a social lockdown.<\/p>\n

Second, expert predictions said COVID-19 posed severe risks for frail seniors. Who are they? Overwhelmingly women, since the Canadian population over the age of 85 contains roughly two women for every man. Major outbreaks at long-term care homes across the country confirm exactly what was expected, which is that the elderly \u2013 most of whom are women \u2013 would face markedly higher rates of infection than the general population. In recent days, two large provinces have called in Canada\u2019s military in order to deal with a serious breakdown in supports for seniors.<\/p>\n

Levels of COVID-19 infection among personal support workers in homes for seniors reveal an unfortunate fact.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Third, who cares in normal times for our elderly? Often, it\u2019s immigrant and visible-minority women based at facilities that offer limited job security, wages, benefits and sick days. Levels of COVID-19 infection among personal support workers in homes for seniors reveal an unfortunate fact. As a society, we have entrusted care for elderly women to working-age women with meagre importance.<\/p>\n

Fourth, what can be done to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among seniors? Experts recommend relatives make room in their own residences for loved ones who are now in institutional care. Who is likely to pick up the slack at home following these moves? According to Statistics Canada data, it\u2019s overwhelmingly women who do the bulk of family care work<\/a> as mothers, wives and daughters.<\/p>\n

Fifth, who at the top takes the heat for official responses to the crisis? It\u2019s Dr. Theresa Tam, a physician born in Hong Kong, educated in the UK and Canada, who serves as Canada\u2019s Chief Public Health Officer. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney lashed out<\/a> at Tam for what he claimed was overly slow regulatory approval of test kits, vaccines and medications. He condemned Tam\u2019s advice from early 2020 to permit travel from regions hit hard by the virus, claiming Tam \u201cwas repeating talking points\u201d from China.<\/p>\n

Counting this toll constitutes a crucial political act. Whether we highlight domestic abuse, frailty in old age, precarious work, caring pressures or personalized criticism faced by women in all their diversity, the upshot is clear: COVID-19 offers an opportune moment to reject the discounts and revalue the experiences and contributions of half the population.<\/p>\n

This article is part of the\u00a0The Coronavirus Pandemic: Canada\u2019s Response<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>special feature.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo: Shutterstock.com, by\u00a0BlurryMe<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the 1970s, a feisty New Zealand legislator named Marilyn Waring made headlines around the world. Her election campaigns were magnets for energetic local volunteers in a mostly rural agricultural constituency. Who were the volunteers? Primarily women who devoted long hours to caring for children, tending vegetable plots, managing sheep and dairy operations, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":277455,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T03:00:14Z","apple_news_api_id":"90eda77f-d6c0-47b5-8707-bb60bb5eeec4","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T03:00:14Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AkO2nf9bAR7WHB7tgu17uxA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9372,9377,9383],"tags":[8370,8470,8493],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4247,4348,4286,4337],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7172],"class_list":["post-268288","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recent-stories-fr","category-sante","category-sciences-et-technologies","tag-seniors-fr","tag-covid-19","tag-gender-inequality-fr","irpp-category-covid","irpp-category-egalite-des-genres","irpp-category-sante","irpp-category-science-et-technologie","irpp-tag-aines"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nCounting the ways COVID takes a toll on women<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2020\/05\/counting-the-ways-covid-takes-a-toll-on-women\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counting the ways COVID takes a toll on women\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back in the 1970s, a feisty New Zealand legislator named Marilyn Waring made headlines around the world. 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