The Gendered Outbreak of COVID-19 in South Korea

Jinwoo Lee

Feminist Economics, 2022, vol. 28, issue 4, 89-111

Abstract: Although South Korea is well-known for its aggressive response to COVID-19, little is known about how the risk of infection manifests differently by gender. Using real-time data on confirmed cases, this study empirically examines the gendered outbreak of COVID-19 driven by occupational segregation in South Korea. It investigates gender differences in risk of work-related exposure, particularly for those jobs where essential activities are conducted, such as in the healthcare sector, and that are dominated by women. The results from the multinomial logit model confirm that women have a higher risk of workplace exposure than men, particularly in pink-collar and care jobs. The findings emphasize the need for a gender-aware perspective to policy measures advanced during the pandemic and recovery.HIGHLIGHTS Gender is an important factor for determining infection risks of COVID-19 in workplaces.In South Korea’s gender-segregated labor markets, women have higher exposure to infection than men.Women typically occupy jobs in the healthcare and welfare sectors that require frequent interpersonal interaction.They are also underrepresented in occupations with the ability to telecommute.Policy measures must include gender-aware responses and address inequality during the pandemic and recovery.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13545701.2022.2057565 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:femeco:v:28:y:2022:i:4:p:89-111

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RFEC20

DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2057565

Access Statistics for this article

Feminist Economics is currently edited by Diana Strassmann

More articles in Feminist Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().