Anna Vasilets, Vice-President and Director of the medical tourism Department of the International Women’s Union, Founder and President of the Atlas of Health group of companies, member of the General Council of Delovaya Rossiya LLC, spoke live on the Moscow 24 TV channel about the situation with women’s employment during the pandemic.
In particular, Anna Vasilets considers this trend not a consequence of gender inequality, but a combination of objective and subjective reasons.
First, during the pandemic, industries where the percentage of women employed is very high were actively affected. For example, travel agencies that were forced to reduce their staff, usually by 80% or more consisting of women.
Second, the increase in female unemployment is due to the fact that many organizations were reduced during the quarantine period to lower status positions, which were usually occupied by women in the company. This is an objective picture that is recorded not only in Russia, but also in other countries of the world.
Third, in many private Russian companies, employees are unfortunately perceived as employees of the “risk group”. Women go on maternity leave, often take sick leave for child care, and their functional responsibilities have to be redistributed among other employees. During the quarantine period, business owners actively reduced female staff.
According to Anna Vasilets, with the stabilization of the situation in the economy, this trend will reverse, and the unemployment rate among women will decrease.
The interview with Anna Vasilets is available here: