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Coronavirus Disease 2019
How Women and Men React to COVID-19
Is there a gender difference?
Posted May 4, 2020
We are all in a new world with no knowledge of what comes next. Everyone has had their life turned upside down, and many are experiencing high anxiety. The emergence of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 has forced us into a new life with considerations we never imagined. I thought it would be interesting to look at this pandemic through a gender lens. There are several observations to consider, and it is helpful to increase our awareness. Of course, there are always individual differences in how we respond to a crisis.
First, it is essential to note that women have traditionally been the caretakers. Although, in this modern-day, when we see more fathers stepping up to assume domestic responsibility, it is women who are likely to be in the primary parenting role. The Women's Health brief presents an analysis of a recent KFF Coronavirus Poll, conducted between March 11 and 15, 2020, and finds larger shares of women are worrying about the negative consequences of the coronavirus and taking more considerable precautions than men.
The poll reveals that a larger share of women compared to men worry that they or someone in their family will get sick from the coronavirus (68% vs. 56%, respectively) and worry about losing income due to a workplace closure or reduced hours because of COVID-19 (50% vs. 42%, respectively). A larger share of women compared to men also worry they would put themselves at risk of exposure to coronavirus because they can't afford to stay home and miss work (39% and 31%, respectively). A larger share of women reported being part-time workers than men (13% vs. 9%). The new law, Families First Coronavirus Response Act, addresses cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing, but treatment costs remain a concern. A larger share of women (40%) compared to men (31%) worry that they will not be able to afford testing or treatment for coronavirus if they need it.
Another noteworthy and not surprising finding is that women are more preoccupied with the feelings, emotions, and mental health repercussions of the stress and anxiety caused by COVID-19. Women are the social maintenance workers, taking care of people, relationships, and feelings. The brief claims that while large shares of women and men are aware of the public health recommendations by the CDC, WHO, and state and local government officials (such as frequent hand washing, masks and staying home if you are feeling sick), a larger share of women report taking precautionary measures. Larger shares of women compared to men say they decided not to travel or changed travel plans (47% vs. 37%); reported canceling plans to attend large gatherings such as concerts or sporting events (43% vs. 36%); say they stocked up on items such as food, household supplies, or prescription medications (39% vs. 30%); and say they stayed home instead of going to work, school, or other regular activities (30% vs. 22%).
Despite the mass entry of women into the workforce during the 20th century, the phenomenon of the "second shift" still exists. Across the world, women who work outside the home still do more work inside the home than men and have less leisure time than their male partners. Even memes about panic-buying acknowledge that women primarily shoulder household tasks such as food shopping.
The coronavirus crisis will be global and long-lasting, economic as well as medical. Helen Lewis in The Atlantic suggests it also offers an opportunity. This could be the first outbreak where gender and sex differences are recorded and taken into account by researchers and policymakers. For too long, politicians have assumed that child care and elderly care can be "soaked up" by private citizens—mostly women—effectively providing a massive subsidy to the paid economy. This pandemic should remind us of the accurate scale of that distortion.
On a final note, preliminary results indicate more men are dying from the virus. NPR host Mary Louise Kelly claimed, "Men seem to be hit harder by the coronavirus than women. Around the world, it appears more men than women are dying from the virus. Now, the reason for this is not exactly clear." In her interview with Science correspondent, Nell Greenfield Boyce, she stated people started noticing this sex difference almost as soon as the first clinical reports came out of Wuhan describing the cases in China. There was one large study that looked at nearly 40,000 cases, and it found that the fatality rate was higher for men. It was 2.8% for men compared with only 1.7% for women. And that's held as the virus has moved to other countries. For example, in Italy, there was one study of 1,500 cases of critically ill people with the virus who were admitted into the ICUs, the intensive care units. And about 80% of them were men.
So what does all this mean? The pandemic has impacted lives across the world. The findings of the survey reinforce much of what we have known about the impact of balancing multiple responsibilities – often without a safety net — has on women. Women have always worked a second shift: work and home. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the gaps in the workplace supports, such as paid sick and family leave, as well as the lack of affordable childcare and long-term care supports. In the absence of a long-term policy response, these issues will persist long after the urgency of the pandemic has passed.
In the US, preliminary findings indicate in one study just recently looking at over 1,400 people hospitalized with the virus in March that about 54% were male, so men are a little overrepresented there. The CDC is not providing this data (many states do not report gender statistics, and testing is not done equally in all states). New York City has information that reveals more men are known to have the virus—more men have been hospitalized, and they seem to be dying at nearly twice the rate as women. So the next question to ask: Is there a biological or social cause for the disparity? Biological differences could be one factor for the differences between males and females. There are real differences between male and female immune systems. Females are much more likely to get autoimmune diseases. Females have two copies of the X chromosome, and it turns out there's a lot of immune-related genes on that chromosome. Women seem to generally mount a more significant and more robust immune reaction to infections. We know this is true for viruses like HIV and hepatitis C.
In terms of social issues, men indulge in more risky behavior and take longer to admit vulnerability like feeling sick and seeking help. Past research has revealed men will wait to make doctor appointments, and more women go to the doctor. Sometimes it is difficult for men to admit vulnerability.
As data unfolds with the virus, we will learn more about the impact of pandemics on women and men and how they respond to the crisis.
