Abstract
Using the South African labour market as a case study, this paper examines the unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender. It adopts the logit model, which is vital in establishing the relationship between the dichotomous “employment” variable and the other multiple covariates, and the Difference in Difference approach, which removes the confounding effect of unobservable factors such as time and group characteristics making the outcome comparisons more accurate. This is especially important in identifying which labour market variables are essential during the COVID-19 pandemic in exacerbating gender inequalities. The COVID-19 pandemic data is based on the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM), and Statistics South Africa's Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS).The periods employed in these surveys begin from 2014 to 2021-Q1. The NIDS-CRAM results indicate that the pandemic negatively affected the labour market in South Africa, with excessive fluctuations when trading hours are restricted, and curfews are implemented, but as soon as they are eased, they recover relatively quickly; the percentage of women employed during the lockdown period was 40% compared 56% for men; and the mean hours worked was lower for women at 32h compared to 35h for men. The QLFS results further confirm the gender disparities highlighted by the NIDS-CRAM results, showing that men had higher employment and employment intensity percentages than women. Additionally, we evaluate labour force participation by comparing race, gender, age groupings, levels of education achieved, and geographical area. Overall, this study found that job losses were not evenly distributed between men and women and that COVID-19 had worsened gender inequality in the labour market. Therefore, the need for policies that promote women's empowerment and reduce gender inequality cannot be overstated.