Women in the world’s richest countries feel abandoned by their governments after the pandemic, DailyExpertNews poll shows

(DailyExpertNews) — On average, more than 60% of women in G7 countries whose lives have been changed by the Covid-19 pandemic say their governments have not given them much of the support they needed to cope with those changes, according to a far-reaching new poll from DailyExpertNews.

These exclusive findings come against the background of numerous reports showing that women have been more adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic than men and the resulting rebuilding commitments that are better touted by leaders around the world.

DailyExpertNews’s research shows that while both men and women in G7 countries whose lives had been disrupted by the pandemic felt they were largely unsupported by their governments, sentiment is more pronounced among women.

In none of these seven countries did a majority of these women say they were getting a good amount or more of the support they needed.

A lack of government support

Women whose lives had been changed by the pandemic were, on average, four percentage points less likely than men who experienced changes to say that their local government provided at least much of the support they needed, and about seven percentage points less. chance to receive comparable support from the national government.

Of the women who say their lives have changed during the pandemic, an average of 31% say their local government has provided at least a good amount of support in coping with those changes, while this figure was 35% for men. When it comes to support from national governments, on average 33% of those women say they have received at least a good amount of support, compared to 40% of those men.

The gap is especially noticeable in the UK, France and Italy. In these three countries, the percentage of people who have experienced change and say they have received at least a good amount of support from their local government was 26% of women and 38% of men in the UK, 26% of women and 39 % of men in France and 29% of women and 40% of men in Italy.

For the percentage of people who have experienced change and say they have received at least a good amount of support from their national government, these figures were 30% of women and 45% of men in the UK, 29% of women and 42 % of men in France , and 29% of women and 44% of men in Italy.

Of the G7 countries, Canada performed the best with 41% of women experiencing change saying they felt supported by their local government and 47% by their national government.

Not only did women in the seven countries feel unsupported on average, they were also generally more unhappy than men about the way their governments were handling the pandemic.

Canada again outperformed, with about 55% of women positively evaluating their government’s handling of the pandemic.

However, less than half of the women in the other six countries approved of it, while the rest disapproved or were unsure. For most, their impression of their government’s response to Covid-19 was significantly worse than that of men.

Where women say they hurt the most

In 2020 and 2021, there was already evidence of the disruptions to women’s lives caused by the pandemic.

The International Labor Organization reported that 13 million fewer women would return to the labor market; data collected by UN Women showed that the pandemic in 13 countries around the world “increased women’s experiences of violence and affected their sense of security”; and, consistent with life before the pandemic, women still carried a disproportionate burden of care for men, spending an average of 5.2 extra hours per week on childcare, compared to 3.5 for men.

DailyExpertNews’s findings reveal where exactly women in the G7 say they are in particular pain right now.

In the G7, an average of 81% of women say the pandemic has caused at least some changes in their lives. Among these women, an average of 71% said these changes were largely negative, and 37% said these changes were significant.

Virtually all aspects of women’s daily lives are disrupted, with the top five disruptions being future planning, community (their relationships with close family and friends), mental health, access to health care and their financial stability.

A study published last week in the Lancet pointed to “increased levels of pre-existing widespread inequalities” after the pandemic and found that women in most parts of the world were more likely to report job losses, saying they had to forgoing work to care for others were more likely to drop out of school than their male counterparts and saw increased levels of gender-based violence between March 2020 and September 2021.

But in each of the G7 countries, the DailyExpertNews survey found that most women did not feel their gender exacerbated the challenges they faced, despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic — rather, they reported a gender difference.

On average, 79% of men said men and women faced the same challenges. This figure was 73% for women. In general, women were also more likely to say that they had a harder time during the pandemic (18% of women said that on average against 12% of men).

The DailyExpertNews survey found that women’s personal experiences with the pandemic vary significantly, with demographics such as race and income helping to determine the impact Covid-19 had on their lives. In the United States, for example, women of color were more likely than white women to say that the pandemic had affected their financial stability (68% compared to 52%), although they were also more likely to say they have seen positive changes in their lives as a result of the pandemic (38% to 52%). 28%).

Differences between countries also explain to some extent why the results of the DailyExpertNews survey may differ from broader reported trends.

The G7 are some of the world’s richest countries, and many of the larger impacts of the pandemic were compounded by poverty.

People who lived in countries with poor health infrastructure, weaker education systems, more crowded homes and the inability to switch to working from home are more at risk in the long term.

A professor of international studies at Brown University, Nadje Al-Ali wrote about Covid-19 and feminism in the South: “The pandemic threatens to create long-term gaps in girls’ education and women’s participation in formal paid work. . , which in turn risk reinforcing traditional patriarchal gender norms and the division of labor within the household and the economy.”

Looking to the future

As countries drop Covid-19 restrictions and instead shift efforts to revitalize economies, DailyExpertNews asked women in the G7 what their level of comfort was living with the coronavirus, and what are the biggest issues facing them. they still face.

Two years after Covid-19 brought the world to a standstill, half or more women in each of the countries surveyed say it’s time to learn to live with the virus, rather than focusing primarily on stopping its spread . Though the extent to which they champion this sentiment varies.

In France, Germany† and in the UK, women are more likely than men to say it’s time to live with the virus; in the US and Japan, women are slightly more likely than men to say that stopping Covid should remain the priority. Canada and Italy see less pronounced gender differences in this regard.

Asked to choose the biggest problem they and their immediate families currently face, inflation and the cost of living top the list for women in five of the seven countries surveyed: the UK (64%), France (63%) ), the US (61%), Canada (56%) and Germany (44%). In Italy, other economic concerns (24%) are ahead of inflation (21%). Japan is the only country where women consider Covid to be their biggest problem (34%), with inflation and the cost of living in second place at 22%.

Less than a tenth of women in one of the countries say their biggest concerns are housing or caring for children or other relatives.

In six of the G7 countries, where inflation and other economic problems are at the forefront of women, a majority of women say their governments are not doing enough to address their top concerns: 58% in Italy, 62% in Germany , 66% in both France and Canada, 67% in the UK and 77% in the US.

In Japan, where Covid-19 is the number one concern, less than half of women – 47% – say the government is doing too little to help.

In a recommendation to the “G7 leaders” published in June 2021, the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Board wrote about “the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women and girls worldwide”, calling for “a pandemic response and recovery that takes into account the needs of women and girls and tracks the effect of recovery initiatives on men and women, taking into account factors such as age, income, disability and ethnicity.”

Still, the results of DailyExpertNews’s exclusive poll show a gap between what G7 leaders have said — about “rebuilding more equality… in a more gender-neutral, more feminine way,” or that “when women are better off.” , we are better off” – and what women think about their lives and prospects since the start of the pandemic.