How is COVID-19 impacting women and men’s working lives in the UK?

The successfully awarded research project through a rapid funding call by Health Data Research UK, Office for National Statistics and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) was led by Tracey Warren and Luis Torres-Retamal (University of Nottingham).

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we work, with many job losses and increased job insecurity, job instability, financial hardship and worry. While most UK workers faced issues and concerns, there were big differences across different groups of workers.

This project compared how the pandemic  changed the working lives of men and women. The study explored whether it  increased or decreased gender inequalities, as well as if there were new gender inequalities caused by the pandemic. This research looked at data that includes a large range of workers from a variety of workplaces and industries across the UK.

The research asked whether the pandemic  narrowed or reinforced existing gender inequalities in our ways of working. Did it create new inequities? To answer these crucial questions, the project analysed data gathered from very many workers, and very different workplaces, across the whole of the UK.

Tead more about the project and its outputs here.