Gender gaps: back and here to stay? Evidence from skilled Ugandan workers during COVID-19

Livia Alfonsi, Mary Namubiru and Sara Spaziani ()
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Livia Alfonsi: Harvard Business School
Mary Namubiru: BRAC Uganda
Sara Spaziani: Brown University

Review of Economics of the Household, 2024, vol. 22, issue 3, No 5, 999-1046

Abstract: Abstract We investigate gender disparities in the effect of COVID-19 on the labor market outcomes of skilled Ugandan workers. Leveraging a high-frequency panel dataset, we find that the lockdowns imposed in Uganda reduced employment by 69% for women and by 45% for men, generating a previously nonexistent gender gap of 20 p.p. Eighteen months after the onset of the pandemic, the gap persisted: while men quickly recovered their pre-pandemic career trajectories, 10% of the previously employed women remained jobless and another 35% remained occasionally employed. Additionally, the lockdowns shifted female workers from wage-employment to self-employment, relocated them into agriculture and other unskilled sectors misaligned with their skill sets, and widened the gender pay gap. Pre-pandemic sorting of women into economic sectors subject to the strongest restrictions and childcare responsibilities induced by schools’ prolonged closure only explain up to 65% of the employment gap.

Keywords: Female employment; Gender gap; COVID-19; Sub-Saharan Africa; Shecession; Sherecovery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 J21 J22 J24 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11150-023-09681-7

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