Easter is traditionally a time which brings us all together. A time to celebrate renewal and rebirth. It is a time when we honour the mystery of someone conquering what up to then had appeared unconquerable.
This year, on the contrary, we are feeling anxious and lost. We are facing the greatest challenge of our time. An invisible force has halted our lives and distanced us from each other. Instead of coming together, families have to stay away from each other, resulting in an ever-growing sense of anxiety unlike anything we have ever felt.
The last weeks have been an unprecedented shock for everyone. I would like to focus particularly on us women who are having to juggle even more than usual our roles of wives, mothers, daughters, entrepreneurs and workers. We have had to find the energy to home school and entertain our children, while maintaining our careers going. At the same time, we have had to forgo most social interaction and mutual collaboration to somehow make ends meet.
That said, the challenges we face are dwarfed by the incredible daily sacrifice of thousands of women employed in essential services. Two out of three full-timers in the health care sector are women. These unsung heroes have for the last few weeks borne the heavy burden of being on the frontline fighting the virus and saving lives.
The economic challenge brought by COVID-19 is not gender-neutral. Isabelle Durant, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has recently noted that in the absence of specific policies “women will carry a disproportionately higher economic cost than men”.
Firstly, women are more likely to be represented in precarious forms of employment such as temporary contracts, self-employment and part-time work. Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis has wreaked havoc in industries that are dominated by women.
I hope our banks understand the importance of sustaining our businesses at this precarious stage
A total of 28% of all working women in our country are employed as service and sales workers, as opposed to 14% of men. Most women in these sectors are not protected by unions, and frequently have paid only minimum national insurance contributions.
Furthermore, as documented by the International Labour Organisation, businesswomen “are often discriminated against when attempting to access credit” at a time when “credit will be of paramount importance in the survival of firms”.
It is crucial that our nation’s response to counter the impacts of COVID-19 ensures that the progress that has been done to achieving better gender balance is not lost. The government policies put in place till now are steps in the right direction.
The wage subsidy of €800 to all full-timers employed in the heavily-impacted services sector, together with the commitment of employers to match another €400, means many women will ensure a decent basic income. Importantly, the provision of relatively more generous subsidies for part-timers protects women.
The benefit introduced to help parents who have to stay at home to look after their children is also a key initiative in this regard. A total of 4,500 parents have already claimed this benefit. Women who lose their employment due to closure of business are also benefitting from an enhanced unemployment benefit, which is a third higher than what was in place prior to the pandemic.
I hope our banks understand the importance of sustaining our businesses at this precarious stage. It should be guaranteed that government aid to our banks is used to provide adequate liquidity to those who were brave enough to risk their savings and set up businesses and, through no fault of their own, now find themselves bereft of any turnover. I humbly call onto those who run our banking sector to do their part to help these businesses survive this challenge.
Before COVID-19, there were 10,000 females in a self-employed situation.
With the help of our banks and government support programmes, we can tangibly ensure each one of them is safeguarded in the best manner possible and will continue to operate in the foreseeable future when normality is restored.
I truly believe that the challenges we are facing will only make us stronger. History teaches us we have always risen higher and come back stronger than before when faced with social tragedies like war, pandemic and economic crisis. Post World War II, we moulded our first social services and made education compulsory.
We have to work to make history repeat itself. 2020 can be the year we reinvigorate our Republic, build stronger social services, reshape an economy that gives due value to workers and embeds in our institutions the sense of unity that is prevailing today.
Together, we can truly turn this greatest challenge of our time into the greatest opportunity for our future.
Lydia Abela, Lawyer and prime minister’s wife