‘65% working women feel Covid impacted their careers negatively’

"Our survey has highlighted that the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian workforce has been detrimental, and female workers have suffered the brunt of this disproportionately, especially at junior levels," said Anuranjita Kumar

New Delhi: The impact of the pandemic has been disastrous for many, including women, as 65 per cent of working women feel that Covid-19 has impacted their careers negatively, a survey said on Tuesday.

In the survey, 4 in 10 women reported job losses in 2020. In April and May alone, 17 million women reported losing jobs.

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“Our survey has highlighted that the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian workforce has been detrimental, and female workers have suffered the brunt of this disproportionately, especially at junior levels,” said Anuranjita Kumar, Founder and CEO, Women in Technology (WiT), India.

According to the survey, there is also a consensus that women have been more negatively impacted than men during this crisis, with 74 per cent agreeing to the view.

Interestingly, the view is more mixed when it comes to sharing of household responsibilities, with 49 per cent of the view that both genders had to step up equally, and 49 per cent feeling the burden was more on women.

On the issue of the pandemic impacting mental health and productivity, 73 per cent of the respondents agreed that the impact was highly negative.

In the survey, 12 per cent of the respondents also highlighted that lesser in person interactions could have a negative impact on women employees and their growth prospects, but there were less concerns that subconscious biases around men being primary breadwinners could impact them.

“The impact is differentiated across sectors and experience levels but is undeniably present. However, we do see the silver lining emerging in 2021 with numbers of hires looking up gradually,” Kumar said.

The survey, conducted by online mentoring platform WiT, focused on 350 female professionals, based in India, within the ages of 21-55.