The uneven impact of the pandemic on women and minorities

Almost three years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery has not been full or homogenous for all countries and segments of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Moreover, some of its effects, such as the impacts on the human capital accumulation of children, will only fully unfold in the future.

A new report by the World Bank based on the Latin America Hight Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS), a multi-year effort to track the effects of the pandemic on the welfare of households in the region, was recently completed. The results confirm the highly uneven impacts of the crisis on labor market outcomes, household income, food insecurity and school attendance, affecting disproportionally those with low levels of education and wealth.

Moreover, the data also sheds light on some impacts of the pandemic that have been underexplored but are important to design a nuanced policy response:

• Women were more vulnerable to experiencing mental health issues, and this seems to be linked to the gendered impacts of COVID-19.
• The unequal impacts of the pandemic aggravated existing disparities for minority groups.

Women’s mental health

The impacts of the pandemic were consistently worse for women. By the end of 2021, job loss was twice as likely for women employed before the pandemic (30 percent) than for men (15 percent). At the same time, by the end of 2021, women were more likely than men to report increases in the time spent on domestic work (32 versus 25 percent), childcare (43 versus 33 percent), and support for children's education (50 versus 37 percent) . These trends seemingly had a toll in the mental wellbeing of women and could potentially threaten the recent gains women have made in the workplace. 

Increase in the amount of domestic work, childcare, and education and schoolwork accompaniment of children, by gender, End-2021

The latest HFPS survey highlights that in terms of mental health, almost half of respondents reported suffering from mental health issues, which refer to experiencing anxiety, aggressive attitudes, irritability, or increased discussions. In addition, more women than men reported having this issue: close to 54 percent for women versus 41 percent for men and particularly middle-aged women (ages 26 to 35 years old). At the same time, for women, reporting mental health issues is positively correlated with job-loss and increased time spent in household and care activities during the pandemic. 

The burden of the pandemic on women, end-2021  

Unequal impacts of the pandemic for minority groups

Similarly, the latest survey shows that the COVID-19 pandemic affected racial minorities (for the seven countries for which this data is available, this corresponds mostly to Indigenous and Afro-descents groups) more markedly, aggravating existing historical unbalances. For example, households with a minority member were 1.4 times more likely to report a decline in total income in the second half of 2021 compared to households without a minority member . In addition, while food insecurity levels were higher for minority households before the beginning of the pandemic, the differential almost doubled by the end of 2021. This can aggravate gaps in human capital levels in the future, contributing to perpetuate the lack of opportunities for these groups.

Share of households reporting income reduction (with respect to mid-2021) and share of households reporting food insecurity in the last 30 days and in the pre-pandemic, by racial minority status

In sum, the latest wave of the HFPS in the LAC region is a reminder of how shocks disproportionally affect vulnerable populations. The results are clear, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted women and minorities more heavily, almost two years after its onset, and it is likely that even today, they require additional support to make a full recovery from the crisis and to prevent scaring medium- and longer-term consequences to their wellbeing.