COVID-19’s gendered effect on subjective wellbeing in MENA countries.

COVID-19’s gendered effect on subjective wellbeing in MENA countries.

Publication date: Jan 10, 2025

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a time of great intensity that exposed many existing inequities in facing this global threat. Building on Galtung’s conceptualization of positive peace as the absence of structural violence and institutionalized inequality, we study the gendered effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on reported subjective wellbeing (SWB) in four countries in the Middle East. Data from mobile phone panel surveys, with a total sample of 12,614 observations collected during this critical juncture, show that women consistently reported a lower level of SWB than men in all four countries. Women experienced higher increases in unemployment rates than men in all four countries, despite their already higher rates prior to the pandemic. Controlling for individual characteristics and geographic-time fixed effects, the main factor associated with lower SWB was the decline in household income, reflecting the intersectionality of poverty and gender. In addition, the reported increase in the time spent on housework negatively affected women’s SWB, particularly in urban areas. The pandemic has further accentuated gender inequality in all four countries and exposed the inherent structural violence experienced by women in these contexts.

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Concepts Keywords
Housework Adult
Unemployment COVID-19
Wellbeing Female
Women Humans
Income
Male
Middle Aged
Middle East
Pandemics
Poverty
SARS-CoV-2
Sex Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires
Unemployment
Young Adult

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH COVID-19
disease MESH structural violence
disease MESH unemployment
disease IDO history
disease IDO quality
drug DRUGBANK Coenzyme M
disease IDO country
disease MESH marital status
disease MESH domestic violence
drug DRUGBANK Isoxaflutole
disease MESH gender based violence
drug DRUGBANK Aspartame
drug DRUGBANK Tropicamide
disease IDO process
disease MESH sid
disease MESH Death
disease MESH uncertainty
pathway REACTOME Release
drug DRUGBANK Meclofenamic acid
drug DRUGBANK Medical air
disease MESH AIDS
drug DRUGBANK Ribostamycin
disease MESH major depressive disorder
drug DRUGBANK Ranitidine
pathway REACTOME Reproduction

Original Article

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