Women workers on the frontline and the Coronavirus pandemic

During the Covid pandemic, women were found on the frontline both in the home and at work. They shouldered the burden of home schooling and extensive childcare while at work they were overrepresented among the ‘heroes’ of the pandemic, both in caring and in the provision of other vital services, such as food retail. This chapter draws on eight international case studies of women’s employment in two key sectors at the heart of the pandemic frontline - social care and food retail. It explores how government policy, social dialogue and collective bargaining responses acted to support or in some cases failed to support these key frontline women workers in their dual roles in the workplace and at home. The chapter reviews these issues across three dimensions: the insecurities they faced at work and whether any efforts, short or long term, were made to improve protections; whether frontline workers received support with their childcare needs and whether the public’s increased awareness of their contribution to society led to any significant efforts to revalue their labour. The findings are interpreted through a wider lens that identifies the constraints on both revaluing frontline workers and supporting social reproduction burdens in gender-unequal societies.