Furlough scheme ‘disproportionately’ affects women, study finds
The government’s furlough has “disproportionately” affected women, who are over-represented in jobs most vulnerable to closures during the pandemic, according to a new study.
Research carried out by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London found women were more likely to be furloughed for longer periods of time than men during the coronavirus crisis.
In July last year, 31 per cent of women who had been furloughed at any point during the pandemic had worked zero hours since March, compared with 20 per cent of their male peers.
The furlough scheme also had a greater financial impact on women, the study suggested. Among workers who had been furloughed at any point between April and July 2020, women were 12 per cent more likely to say they were struggling to pay their usual bills than men.
Academics warned that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme may not be doing enough to address the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis on women.
“These gender disparities are likely down to the long-term use of furlough in the hardest-hit sectors of the economy, in which women make up the majority of workers, such as accommodation and food services and the arts and entertainment sector,” the authors of the study concluded.
It suggested ministers’ decision to roll out a “blanket response for all industries and workers” for the furlough scheme overlooked “highly sectoral and gendered impacts” of the public health emergency.
Dr Rose Cook, senior research fellow at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, said: “The furlough scheme has undoubtedly prevented mass job losses. However, our results suggest that in 2020, once furloughed, women were disproportionately furloughed for longer periods, and had worse perceived job and financial security than their male peers.
“This provides yet another example of why gender-sensitive policymaking is needed to prevent women losing out even further than they already have from the impacts of pandemic.”
It comes after separate data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that women have been more likely to be furloughed during the pandemic, and have spent more time on unpaid household work and childcare.
One in five workers, or around 19 per cent of the UK’s workforce, are still making use of the furlough scheme, according to the latest figures from the ONS.
PwC’s latest Women in Work index published last week, which studied a range of factors including the gender pay gap and female unemployment, suggested the pandemic will cause a “shecession”.
It warned that “progress towards gender equality needs to be twice as fast as its historical rate” in order to undo the damage caused by Covid-19 to women in work by 2030.