The Women’s Policy Group NI recently published our comprehensive COVID-19 Feminist Recovery Plan for Northern Ireland. In this, we provide a vast amount of evidence of the deeply unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, economically, socially and in relation to their health and well-being. Based on this evidence, both in Northern Ireland and globally, we felt that recommendations for gender-responsive recovery planning should come directly from the groups of women who are most affected. The impact on all protected groups will be severe, and our Feminist Recovery Plan presents a roadmap for the NI Executive to address this.

In Northern Ireland, political representatives and decision makers have tended to take a “gender-neutral” approach to policy-making, an approach that has drastically harmed women (for example, the decision to begin reopening the economy without giving any consideration to the need for childcare). The WPG has been consistently expressing our concerns over the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women.

Elected representatives must use the evidence we have gathered to inform their response planning. We did see some successes, for example through the quick action to address the issue of pregnant women becoming ineligible for Statutory Maternity Pay after falling below the required pay threshold due to being furloughed. However, for the most part, women have been completely left behind in the response to COVID-19 and evidence suggests that if this approach continues, pre-existing inequalities and suffering will be exacerbated and gender inequality in NI will become further entrenched.

COVID-19 and Women in NI

The COVID-19 crisis has put sharp focus on the value and importance of care work, paid and unpaid, and highlighted the essential nature of often precarious, and almost always low-paid, retail work. Women undertake the majority of this work, and evidence shows that women will bear the brunt of this crisis; economically, socially and in terms of health.

The COVID-19 Feminist Recovery Plan highlights alarming evidence of women suffering the full force of the COVID-19 crisis in Northern Ireland. For example, 79% of Health and Social Care Staff in NI are women; 85% of part-time workers are women; 70% of workers ineligible for Statutory Sick Pay are women; 91% of single mothers and the vast majority of food bank users are women and the vast majority of carers (both paid and unpaid), teachers, retail, hospitality and frontline staff are women.

Despite vast evidence highlighting the brunt of the crisis being borne on the backs of women, the transition from lockdown to recovery has largely ignored the gendered implications of the crisis. We need urgent action from all to address this.

Childcare and Care Work

Access to childcare is a key part of our economic infrastructure and it is necessary for people to be able to fully return to workplace settings, to fully facilitate working from home and for children to return to schools. Childcare is a key component to any pathway to recovery. 40% of families in Northern Ireland (around 350,000 workers) have dependent children yet little consideration appears to be given to the misalignment between the reopening of many sectors of our economy while childcare options remain extremely limited.

In Northern Ireland, 69% of carers are women and research from Carers NI shows that Northern Ireland’s carers save the economy £57 billion per year. Care work is central to the functions of every economy; yet it is still treated as a private issue and undervalued as contributors to economies. During COVID-19, it is estimated that there has been an increase of 4.5 million people providing care across the UK, which is almost a 50% increase since the pandemic began. The majority of these carers are women, and 26% of all workers are now juggling paid employment and unpaid care. UK Women’s Budget Group research indicates that a 2% GDP investment in care (social care, childcare, parental leave etc.) creates double the amount of jobs for women and almost as many for men than the same investment in construction.

Investment in care, particularly free and universal childcare, returns almost all of the initial investment.

These are just two examples of the evidence and subsequent recommendations from the WPG that need to be urgently acted upon by the NI Executive, both in terms of COVID-19 responses and in the development of the Programme for Government. This Feminist Recovery Plan provides similar data analysis and recommendations across a range of sectors and has recommendations that all Ministers and Departments need to urgently act on.

It is imperative that the pre-existing institutionalised inequalities are fully considered in all policymaking to not only prevent the exacerbation of inequalities, but to urgently enhance gender equality as we move forward. In recovery, we are calling for the co-development of recovery planning with the communities disproportionately affected, particularly the women’s sector. This requires the evidence and recommendations from the WPG Feminist Recovery Plan to be used in both COVID-19 response planning, and the creation of any new Programme for Government – the issues are intrinsically linked.