Why is Unemployment Bad for Gender Equality?

Contributor(s): Aliya Rao | Aliya Rao explores how unemployment reinforces gender inegalitarian norms and behaviours when it comes to time, space and emotions. How might we tackle this seemingly backwards step? The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed rampant gender inequalities. The economic downturn we are facing has led to mass unemployment, which has had a disproportionate impact on women. Research from before and during the pandemic shows that women’s job loss and unemployment – more prevalent now than ever – is becoming yet another factor that pushes women out of the workforce, out of economic self-sufficiency, and toward unpaid work in the domestic realm. Meet our speaker Aliya Rao is an Assistant Professor in Qualitative Research Methodology in the Department of Methodology and author of Crunch Time: How Married Couples Confront Unemployment. Find out more about Aliya’s research: The ideal job-seeker norm: unemployment and marital privileges in the new economy. From professionals to professional mothers?: how college-educated, married mothers experience unemployment in the US. Stand by your man: wives’ emotion work during men’s unemployment This film is part of the 'Festival Shorts' series, 10-minute talks by LSE experts released during Festival week Keywords: Shaping the Post-COVID World, gender equality, economics, equality, unpaid work, workforce, gender balance.