Half of Brazilian women became caretakers for someone since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. When you take into account race and region, the numbers shift. In rural areas, 62% started taking on this sort of responsibility. When it comes to assistance in performing these duties, black women have the least amount of support.
The information was made available by a study called, “No stopping: the life and work of women during the pandemic,” carried out by the entities Gender Numbers, Sempre Viva, Feminist Organization (SOF) and published last Thursday, July 30th. Furthermore, the study reveals that 41% of women are working more during the pandemic, the biggest portion of them being white, “evidence that the absence of domestic workers and spaces like kinder gardens and schools being closed, have weighed heavily on the group,” affirm the organizations that participated in the research. Women who are at home without any wages or reduced pay during this period, make up 39% of the survey’s respondents.
According to the entities that did the study, which spoke to 2,600 Brazilian women between the months of April and May. The goal was to identify the effects the pandemic is having on women’s jobs, income and family upkeep, taking into account the duty of caring for family members or other dependents.
“I am under quarantine and working from home, however, my income has dropped drastically,” stated one of the women surveyed. Another said that “the company reduced our pay by 50%, without reducing hours. This forced me to reorganize my life financially, because I still have expenditures with groceries and utilities etc.”
According to the organizations who led the effort, “understanding that these women need to care for others even more during the pandemic, is fundamental to transforming these social dynamics of inequality, that involve gender, race and class, and coming up with initiatives towards that goal,” seeing as this population is the most affected by precarious living conditions during harsh times.
