The Covid-19 pandemic has not only exacerbated existing inequalities, but also created new gender gaps, according to a new research brief by the International Labour Organisation.

Before the pandemic, there was no difference between the male and female unemployment rate, but a gap appeared from the third quarter of 2020.

The total weekly hours worked by women in the second quarter of 2020 were 88.8% of the total for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to 91.2% for men.

However, women’s working hours recovered faster. In the last three months of 2020, women worked 0.8% more hours than in the same period of 2019, whereas men worked 0.6% more.

“Those employed women who worked longer hours than usual in the second half of 2020 possibly wanted to make up for the income losses in the second quarter,” Valentina Barcucci, ILO Vietnam Labour Economist, lead author of the research, said. “Such additional hours made the double burden heavier to carry, as the time spent by women on household chores remained disproportionately high.”

“Again the gap women face in job quality and career development stems from the double burden they carry,” said Barcucci. “They spend twice as many hours on household work than men.”
Women spent an average of 20.2 hours per week cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking and shopping for the family, family care and childcare, whereas men spent 10.7 hours. Close to one fifth of men did not spend any time on these activities at all, the ILO stated.

“With remarkably high labour market participation rate, women in Vietnam face multiple and persistent labour market inequalities, and carry a disproportionate double burden of work and family responsibilities,” the report stated.

More than 70% of Vietnam’s working-age women are in the labour force, compared to the global level of 47.2% and the average of 43.9% in Asia and the Pacific.

While the gender gap in labour force participation is narrower in Vietnam than in the world, it has still stood at 9.5% (men’s rate higher than women’s) over the last decade. According to the research brief, the uneven distribution of family responsibilities in Vietnam’s society could be the reason behind this.

Nearly half of the women who were not economically active in the 2018 Labour Force Survey had made this choice because of “personal or family-related reasons”, compared to 18.9% of inactive men.

The research also indicated that the high labour force participation of women in Vietnam should not be interpreted as an indicator of equal opportunity.

“Before the Covid-19 pandemic, both women and men had a relatively easy access to jobs, but the quality of such jobs was on average lower among women than among men,” said Barcucci.

According to the ILO, female workers were overrepresented in vulnerable employment, particularly in contributing family work. They earned less than men (by 13.7% on monthly wages in 2019), despite comparable working hours and the progressive elimination of gender gaps in educational attainment.
Women were also underrepresented in decision-making jobs. They accounted for nearly half of the labour force, but less than one fourth of overall management roles.