The pandemic is hitting women harder

COVID-19 cost the world's women 64 million jobs and $800 billion in lost income in 2020.

"I am already in debt. There is no way I can buy even a kilo of rice. The help I get here allows me to survive for a month. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't received this support"

Shahida Akter Lucky, domestic worker in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Fabeha Monir / Oxfam

64 million women lost their jobs last year. This is a 5% loss, compared to 3.9% for men. Another 47 million women worldwide are expected to fall into extreme poverty, living on less than $1.9 a day in 2021.

"The economic impact of COVID-19 is hitting women extremely hard as they are globally overrepresented in low-paid, precarious jobs in the industries most affected by the pandemic," said Gabriela Bucher, Secretary General of Oxfam International.

This is a conservative estimate and does not include the lost income of the millions of women around the world working in the informal economy - domestic workers, market vendors and workers in the textile industry.

Unpaid domestic and care work

Across the world, women have been more likely to stop working or reduce their hours during the pandemic, largely due to the care responsibilities that often fall on women. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, women and girls around the world spent 12.5 billion hours a day on unpaid domestic and care work.

"Unpaid domestic and care work has exploded in scale and the responsibility for shouldering the increased care needs during the pandemic has fallen mainly on women," said Gabriela Bucher.