The Covid-19 pandemic has completely different consequences for men and women – and not only in terms of health. It seems that the virus does not care who it infects. Why does gender matter? This coronavirus spares no one – not bus drivers, not prime ministers. Does it prefer people of a certain sex? And how could that be? After all, the virus is practically an inanimate piece of drifting genetic material. It cannot make conscious decisions. And yet it affects different populations in very different ways.
The most obvious difference is between men and women. The difference lies not only in the course of the disease itself, but also in its long-term consequences – for health and economic conditions. One of the most striking differences is in mortality. In the U.S., for example, twice as many men as women die from coronavirus. In Western Europe, 69% of all COVID-19 deaths are male. The same observation is made in China and worldwide. Scientists at University College London are compiling gender health statistics in countries around the world to try to understand why there is such a difference. The reason is still unclear. “We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what will happen next.” Episodes End of story. Podcast Advertising.
One theory is that the female immune system responds more strongly to the virus, says Philip Calder, professor of immunology at the University of Oxford. “The immune response to vaccines and infections is generally more aggressive and effective in women than in men,” he says. This is partly because women have two X chromosomes, while men have only one, which can be important when exposed to the coronavirus. “In particular, the protein that coronaviruses recognize is encoded on the X chromosome,” Gulder continues. “As a result, this protein is expressed at twice the level in many immune cells in women compared to men. As a result, the female body’s immune response to the coronavirus is enhanced. Another explanation is the different lifestyles of men and women. For example, smoking affects the incidence of related diseases such as heart disease, chronic lung disease and oncology, says Gulder. All of this affects the outcome of the infectious disease caused by the coronavirus. “Such a difference is particularly noticeable in some countries, such as China, where 50% of men smoke and only 5% of women.
In many countries, men smoke more than women, which affects the condition of men’s lungs. However, at this stage of the pandemic, we cannot definitively say which is more important – or perhaps both influence each other. But there is another important aspect of how the pandemic is affecting men and women differently. Michelle Tertilt, an economist at the University of Mannheim, Germany, and her colleagues are gathering evidence on this by looking at male and female workers in the United States. So the so-called shutdown has already cost a huge number of people their jobs, and the economies of many countries are threatened with recession. But when it comes to unemployment, men and women are not equal. But the circumstances are truly unique and, according to Tertilt, different from a typical recession. In the U.S., 1.4 million people lost their jobs in March, the largest increase since 1975. Women were hit harder – unemployment rose by 0.9% (compared to 0.7% for men). One of the peculiarities of the current crisis is that men tend to suffer more from unemployment during recessions because they work primarily in production sectors that are closely tied to economic cycles, such as construction and industry. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to be involved in industries such as health care and education. But now there are other factors that affect employment. One of them is whether you are a key or important employee. A team of scientists led by Tertil believes that key workers in health care, transportation, law enforcement (police), agriculture, fishing, forestry, maintenance and repair are essential. According to this classification, 17% of women and 24% of men work in major industries. The second most important factor is the ability to work from home or remotely. Obviously, a business analyst may be able to work remotely, but a bartender may not. Tertilt found that men are more likely to have the ability to work from home – 28% (22% for women). When you think about it, it’s not surprising: a lot of women work in restaurants, in the tourism industry. But around the world, restaurants and bars are closed, and almost no one travels.
The closure of companies during the quarantine, whose employees could not work remotely, primarily affected women. “From an economic perspective, low-paid, young, working-class women are the most affected,” says Natasha Mudhar, executive director and co-founder of The World We Want, an organization that describes itself as a global movement whose activities are aimed at achieving the United Nations’ goals for sustainable development. The gender pay gap exacerbates inequality: not only do women lose their jobs more quickly, but they also receive less pay for them. In the United States, women earn only 85% of what men earn. In Australia, the figure is 86%, and in India it is 75%. The situation is even worse for women of certain races and nationalities: in the US, for example, black women earn 21% less than white women. Single parents are in an even worse situation. According to Tertilt, there are 20 million of them in the United States, and three-quarters of them are women. “Just imagine – they won’t be able to work,” says Terfilt. “Even if such a woman is a nurse or a doctor, even if she works in an important field for society, it doesn’t matter – if she has a child at home, she won’t be able to leave him alone.” Even if these parents are able to work remotely, it is not realistic to assume that they will be able to fully perform their duties when a young child is constantly demanding their attention. “This is especially true for single mothers,” Tertilt points out. “They cannot currently hire a nanny or ask their grandmother or neighbor to babysit. So they lose their jobs.”
The existing pay gap between women’s and men’s work makes women more financially vulnerable during a crisis. The problem is also that even in countries where the government financially supports those who have lost their jobs (Great Britain, Germany, USA), such parents may not meet the criteria – let’s say if they quit their job before this program was implemented. “All epidemics have different consequences for people of different genders,” says Claire Wenham, a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science. “The problem is that no one has talked about it before, and politicians have not been aware of it.” Wenem and his colleagues have studied the effects of Zika and Ebola virus outbreaks on men and women, and now they are studying what happens with the new coronavirus. One of the consequences of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone was a significant increase in maternal mortality. “We know from previous epidemics that all resources are usually put into fighting the outbreak,” says Wenem. “This means that the planned delivery of health services is interrupted.” In addition, as a result of the pandemic, there are increasing reports of domestic violence. In France, for example, the number of such cases increased by a third in the first week of the lockdown, by 75% in Australia, and by double in Lebanon. And while domestic violence affects both men and women, women are disproportionately affected: in the U.S., for example, they are twice as likely to be subjected to violence by a partner. Women are 14 times more likely to be raped. “When you lock people in their homes during a stressful time, when people have no money, when there is no work, you don’t have to be a scientist to understand why that leads to domestic violence,” says Wenem.
Men are at greater risk of infection now, but women may not feel the effects of the pandemic until years later. The current situation is undeniably grim – for each gender in its own way. For men, especially those in the older age groups, the main concern is the possibility of becoming seriously ill and dying. For women, who are more likely to recover from the infection, the consequences can last for years. As Weneem says, it is not too late for governments to take care of those who have suffered more than others economically. There is much that can be done to soften the financial blow to these people. “We need to think about how to economically stimulate women during and after the pandemic, how to get them back to work,” she says. “For example, providing them with child care services.” However, the Tertilt study found light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, there were two bright spots. The first is a flexible approach to the workplace. “Millions of entrepreneurs and businesses are adapting to work from home on the road,” she says. In March, some areas of the U.S. saw a 200% increase in remote work. “Within certain limits, this can become the norm and help make it easier to combine work and family,” she says. “Such changes in corporate culture will benefit women in particular, as they are the ones who are most responsible for caring for children in the family.” The second glimmer of hope is the possibility of a role reversal during the lockdown, albeit a forced one. “Imagine a family where the wife is a doctor in a hospital, on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus, and the husband works from home,” she says. “In such a family, the husband suddenly becomes the primary caregiver for the children.” Given that 60% of American families traditionally assign such a role to women, Tertil believes this will be a significant change with long-term implications. Experience in Germany and Sweden, where fathers have the opportunity to take leave in connection with the birth of a child, has shown that this experience permanently changes men’s attitudes to parenthood. “Even if the quarantine and self-isolation continues for a month or two, the long-term consequences are inevitable,” Tertilt believes. “And if it lasts longer, the consequences will be even more serious.
Single parents were particularly affected by the shutdown. Any crisis in health care exacerbates and highlights inequalities in various aspects of life. Gender inequality is just one example. For example, in the United States, cities with large African-American populations bear the brunt of the pandemic. But it highlights a problem that existed long before the pandemic – disparities in access to health care. For example, African Americans in Chicago live an average of nine years less than their white neighbors. Those with associated health problems are more likely to die from Covid-19. And diabetes and cardiovascular disease disproportionately affect African Americans. Yes, the virus spares no one, but that does not mean that all members of society are at equal risk. The opposite is true: this virus clearly shows the inequality in health care – much more clearly than ever before.
You can read the original version of this article on the BBC Future website.
