COVID-19 Impacts and Gender Equality

What we learned

The datasets represent very different people.

Where we could compare demographics, CARE’s surveys were more likely to reach people who did not have access to the internet, who had lower levels of education, and were in different age brackets. This means there is still a critical role for different kinds of data collection to fill in gaps from some of the big online datasets. In the US, where we have the most exact comparison demographics, and where there are fewer barriers to participating in online surveys, there are still substantial gaps. In the CARE US data, respondents were spread fairly equally across age groups, with a slightly higher number of respondents who were 55 years old or older (36%) compared to 43% of Gender Equality at Home respondents in the 35-54 group. CARE’s data showed 39% of people with high school education or less (39%). 47% of the people in Gender Equality at home had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Men and women are having different experiences in COVID-19.

Both the CARE and Meta data showcase differences between men and women in COVID-19. On most variables, women are reporting more significant impacts than men are. That implies a need to not only keep collecting this kind of disaggregated data, but also to use that data to improve our responses to COVID-19.

Mental health, livelihoods, and education are major impacts for everyone.

Mental health and livelihoods rose to the top of each list of COVID-19’s major impacts. The COVID-19 impacts areas in the Gender Equality at Home were education (41%), livelihood (35%), health (26%), and mental health (24%). Similarly, people in CARE’s survey were more likely to prioritize livelihood (77%), mental health (63%), and education (42%).  That the different population groups both prioritized these issues so highly suggests they are crucial in most contexts.

There are important differences between the datasets.

In CARE’s data, food security was a core priority impact for 40% of the people. Food security was much less likely to be a priority for people in the Survey on Gender Equality at Home (25%). The Meta and CARE surveys uncover the extent to which different distinct subsets of the population, from historically marginalized groups like migrants, refugees, and factory workers, to Facebook users experience crisis differently. Collecting data intentionally to understand the experiences of different people shows us important insights about how to address the problems people face in COVID-19. This impact is more intense in different areas of the world based on gender, nationality, and immigration status.

This blog was written by Miriam Selva and Emily Janoch. The Meta data analysis was done in collaboration with Jonathan-Georges Mehanna.