The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control it have threatened livelihoods, introduced new workplace risks and made unstable work relationships even more precarious, especially for women. In this context, the Women’s Aid Organization and the University of Alberta plan to study the experience of women performing paid and unpaid work during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess the effectiveness and relevance of existing policies that govern their working conditions during the pandemic. They will utilize qualitative and quantitative mixed methods to study the burden of care work, formal and informal, paid and unpaid, considering social identifiers, using an intersectional lens (considering combined variables such as race, gender and class) in Malaysia, across Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. These identifiers include ethnicity, gender and class across a spectrum of essential care workers residing in varying household and familial configurations (e.g., single mothers, intergenerational households). Data generated will be participatory, guided by feminist research principles, collected through in-depth interviews, quantitative surveys, focus group discussions and policy assessments, including engagement with key government stakeholders to inform gender transformative care policies and infrastructure moving forward.
Expected results includes:
Using a community-based participatory action research approach, the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Peru), St. Michel’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto and the Socio-Economic and Labor Research Directorate of the Ministry of Work and Employment (Peru), will involve women domestic workers unions to examine the working conditions and access to healthcare of women domestic workers in three cities of Peru (Lima, La Libertad and Piura).
Strengthened multidisciplinary research team capacities including early career researchers and women scientists.