it’s time to recognize the people carrying society through this pandemic with their unpaid labour. with schools and daycares closed, who is looking after the children? who is caring for elderly parents, cleaning the home, sewing the homemade face masks, picking up prescriptions, meal planning, and bearing the
anxiety of going grocery shopping?
many of these tasks often falls on the shoulders of the matriarch. researchers have warned that putting this disproportionate burden of
unpaid labour on women is unsustainable
. in a study published year, australian researchers found
mothers do twice the amount of housework
fathers do, no matter the income they make.
because many women’s careers are concentrated in caring and service industries or minimum-wage paying jobs, many have also lost their income as a result of the pandemic.
on friday may 8, ontario’s official opposition leader andrea horwath
addressed women’s burden in a press conference:
“at the core of this devastation is a simple fact: women are bearing the brunt of the economic pain resulting from covid-19. before this crisis, of all those struggling financially, relying on food banks or payday loans, 60% were women. now during the pandemic, women — especially racialized women — are disproportionately the ones on the frontlines at the most risk of contact with the virus.”