REPORT ON NATIONAL WEBINAR – INEQUALITY BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN IN CURRENT SCENARIO: ELIMINATING GENDER DISCRIMINATION DURING PANDEMIC
The webinar was conducted by the Centre for Gender Studies on 22nd May 2021 from 3:00 to 4:00 PM on the platform Microsoft teams. The great for the event is Dr Shahista Salimkhan Inamdar, Assistant Professor, Navjeevan Law College, Nashik (Savitribai Phule Pune University).
The session commencesd at 4:00 PM with the inaugural speech by Dr Anuradha Binnuri, officiating Director of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, and following that, the session kick-started by Dr Shahista Salimkhan Inamdar. While coming to the event’s discussion revolves around the mist of pandemic, and the subplot that we have drawn on this mist is the Inequality between men and women, specifically targeting the women serving in the front line, along with what we discussed about women in general society.
When we think about the pandemic, the first thing that strikes our intrusion is economic fallout and deaths; no one, in particular, thinks about its regressive effects on gender equality. This pandemic has deeply affected the women in the form of the increasing burden on them because women single handily manage the unpaid care not only in a specific region but everywhere else in the world.
According to some reports, women are much prone to unemployment situations rather than men because of the work that they have engaged in. We are not explicitly highlighting that only women are losing jobs because of the pandemic, but the pandemic affects some parts of the economy, where women are more vulnerable to disruption.
This pandemic is clearly sinking the progression that has been achieved by the world that has made in the path of gender equality in the past few decades. During these profound times, the risk of violence, harassment, and exploitation has touched the peak, but the authorities have considered taking minimal care regarding this aspect.
The pandemic can not be eradicated over a night, many vulnerable groups will suffer, and women will be affected heavily amongst them. Women accounted for nearly 70% of the health force but considering employment positions from the perspective, barely any of them are in the decision-making and leadership positions in the healthcare sector.
Women are more vulnerable to pandemic-related economic effects because of existing gender inequalities. Developing nations account for more than half of the female labour force, especially the is a rampant force in the growth of female entrepreneurship. The crisis may have made some family resources scarce, such as financial capital to invest in businesses or digital devices that families must now share as children’s schooling has gone online.
Our Power of Parity research showed that both digital and financial inclusion, notably access to credit from financial institutions and access to mobile banking, are closely related to the presence of women in the labour force. While comparing developing nations to the developed nations in terms of the job lay off in respect to the women, we came to know that due to lack of systemic progress to resolve other societal barriers for women explains the reason why this occurs in the first place irrespective of the economic performance.
The session was a successful initiative concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Faculty-in Charge of Centre for Gender Studies Dr Priyanka Mohod. The session was very inspiring and convincing for the attendees of the session. All the attendees were aware of the current pandemic situation, what it has led women into, and their difficulties regarding the economies. Laying off women in jobs were compared between both the developed and the developing countries, the reasons why there is a considerable gap in the index were also explained in this webinar. The session addresses some keynotes on tackling Inequality and gender imbalance amongst men and women in this pandemic.
