The Gendered Crisis: Livelihoods and Well-Being in India During COVID-19
研究COVID-19对印度德里城市非正规部门工人就业和心理健康的影响，发现男性就业和收入大幅下降，而女性心理健康压力更大，且男性失业对妻子心理影响超过自身。
This article studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gendered dimensions of employment and mental health among urban informal-sector workers in Delhi, India. First, the study finds that men’s employment declined by 84 percentage points during the pandemic relative to pre-pandemic employment, while their monthly earnings fell by 89 percent relative to the baseline mean. In contrast, women did not experience any significant impact on employment during pandemic. Second, the study documents very high levels of pandemic-induced mental stress, with wives reporting greater stress than husbands. Third, this gendered pattern in pandemic-induced mental stress is partly explained by men’s employment losses, which affected wives more than husbands. In contrast, women staying employed during the pandemic is associated with worse mental health for them and their (unemployed) husbands. Fourth, pre-existing social networks are associated with higher mental stress for women, possibly due to the “home-based” nature of women’s networks.HIGHLIGHTSIn India, men suffered larger employment losses than women during the pandemic.Women reported greater mental stress than men, although both reported high stress.Men’s employment losses affected their wives’ mental health more than their own.Having many peers is correlated with worse stress for women, but not men.