Could COVID-19 widen the workplace gender gap?

Oct 16, 2020

Delores Leonard (R) helps her daughter Erin with her homework at the breakfast table before heading to work at a McDonald's Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, September 25, 2014. Leonard, a single mother raising two daughters, has been working at McDonald's for seven years and has never made more than minimum wage. Picture taken September 25, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - GM1EAAH1LAM01

Throughout the pandemic, women have taken on a greater share of childcare and domestic duties. Image: REUTERS/Jim Young

Ellen Wulfhorst

Chief Correspondent of the Americas, Thompson Reuters Foundation

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how COVID-19 is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

COVID-19

Have you read?

women do more than 75% of the unpaid work at home on average. Image: International Labour Organization

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on COVID-19
See all

Here’s what to know about the new COVID-19 Pirola variant

Lora du Moulin and Charlotte Edmond

October 11, 2023

How the cost of living crisis affects young people around the world

Douglas Broom

August 8, 2023

From smallpox to COVID: the medical inventions that have seen off infectious diseases over the past century

Andrea Willige

May 11, 2023

COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. Here's what it means

Simon Nicholas Williams

May 9, 2023

New research shows the significant health harms of the pandemic

Philip Clarke, Jack Pollard and Mara Violato

April 17, 2023

Candida auris: What you need to know about the deadly fungus spreading through US hospitals

Rebecca A. Drummond

April 11, 2023