Women at the time of the pandemic

The perks and pitfalls of teleworking

Christine Leșcu, 14.07.2021, 14:00

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.