care policy

Care loops and everyday mobilities in pandemic times

by Lise Widding Isaksen and Lena Näre

The Covid-19 pandemic made the socio-economic importance of care loops and everyday mobilities very visible. ‘Care loops’ is a concept coined to capture the routine, daily practices and micro-mobilities of care that create loops between the home, the workplace, places of child or elder care, schools, and leisure activities. In pandemic times, parents’ labour market participation and balancing of work and family were re-organized and privatized to contain the spreading of coronavirus. Consequently, boundaries between the private and the public became blurred, and new socio-spatial practices emerged.

Elder care and paid work: Gender differences in the relationship between unpaid elder care work and employment in Bulgaria

by Mieke Meurs and Lisa Giddings

Covid-19 has shown a bright light on the unequal burden of care on women and the impact of this burden on women’s wellbeing. The increase in household work, childcare, homeschooling, and the care of older adults, which under normal circumstances is disproportionately born by women, has been exacerbated in the pandemic as “Covid took a crowbar into gender gaps and pried them open”. This is taking an economic and emotional toll. According to McKinsey Global Institute, women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable in Covid-19 than men’s, and while women comprise 39 percent of global employment, but they account for 54 percent of job losses. Research in the United States showed that among mothers of children under 18 years of age, 57 percent are experiencing increased stress due to the coronavirus outbreak, compared 32 percent of fathers.

Care, Caring and Social Policy in COVID-19 Times

By Mary Daly

If nothing else, the COVID-19 virus invites us to think big and reconsider our lives and our world. In this context, I want to suggest the benefits of thinking about the pandemic through the concept of care.