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The disproportionate impact of COVID‐19 on women relative to men: A conservation of resources perspective
Author(s) -
Peck Jessica A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/gwao.12597
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , resource (disambiguation) , covid-19 , position (finance) , affect (linguistics) , resource dependence theory , psychology , demographic economics , demography , gerontology , economics , sociology , disease , medicine , computer science , computer network , communication , finance , pathology , artificial intelligence , infectious disease (medical specialty) , microeconomics
COVID‐19 has had a disproportionate impact on women relative to men. While more men than women are dying of COVID‐19 (Centers for Disease Control, 2020a), there is a general consensus that the lasting economic and health effects will negatively affect women as opposed to men (Azcona et al, 2020). In this article, I examine the effects of COVID‐19 on women from a Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989) perspective. Herein, I show that women were already in a resource loss position relative to men prior to COVID‐19 by examining various types of object, personal characteristic, condition, and energy resources. Then, I draw from multiple datasets and reports to show that COVID‐19 has put women in an even greater resource loss position relative to men and caution against the resource loss spiral that is occurring as a result, placing progress towards gender equality in jeopardy for years to come.