Coronavirus: Women taking fight to Covid-19 should gain lasting respect – Gina Davidson

Women make up the majority of health and care staff who are on the frontline of our war against this deadly coronavirus outbreak, writes Gina Davidson.
The majority of NHS staff, like a new minor injuries team set up to provide help via a video call by NHS Lothian, are women (Picture: Ian Georgeson)The majority of NHS staff, like a new minor injuries team set up to provide help via a video call by NHS Lothian, are women (Picture: Ian Georgeson)
The majority of NHS staff, like a new minor injuries team set up to provide help via a video call by NHS Lothian, are women (Picture: Ian Georgeson)

The coronavirus is a respecter of no-one. No matter class, wage packet size, age or sex – it has no interest in you or your lifestyle. Everyone is in its sights, none of us is immune. However, the impact of this virus on men and women is undoubtedly different.

One of those differences is purely physical. It’s long been recognised that women tend to live longer than men, and have lower incidences of developing certain diseases. Women’s immune systems are more robust – generally because of pregnancy – and this, it is being suggested, could be why fewer women who are infected with Covid-19 are dying as a result.

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Research from China has found that while men and women are infected in about equal numbers, the death rate among men was 2.8 per cent, compared with 1.7 per cent for women.

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Despite that, it’s entirely possible that ultimately Scotland’s vital intensive care beds will see more women in them than men. For it is women who are at the forefront of fighting this appalling disease; far more women will be exposed to this virus, than men. It is women who are the beating heart of the care sector – be it in low-paid care home jobs, or looking after vulnerable or elderly family at home. It is women who are in the makeshift hub schools caring for the kids of key workers – one told me she felt like Meryl Streep in Silkwood every time she came home to her own children.

84% of social care staff are women

It is women who work on the supermarket tills and fill the shelves. It is women who clean the hospital wards and serve meals to patients. And of course, the vast majority of whom we now recognise as key workers – health and social care staff – are women.

The latest NHS Scotland figures show out of the 140,200 people employed in the service 108,400 are women, that’s a massive 77.4 per cent. In nursing and midwifery, there are 53,000 women compared to 6,600 men. Only the ambulance service, out of all the medical and allied health services, has more men on the frontline.

Other statistics show that 59 per cent of those providing unpaid care to a relative or neighbour are women. Overall in Scotland’s social care workforce, only 16 per cent are men.

And because of women’s longevity there are more women already needing care; of those who require social care at home, 62 per cent are female, and in care homes, women elderly residents make up 68 per cent. They will be at heightened risk.

Running towards danger

We all knew this. We all know that women are the bedrock of the caring services of the country. We all know that as a result of that, these jobs tend to be low paid and of low prestige. But most turn a blind eye to this because to do otherwise would be to accept the vast inequalities in the importance placed on the roles of men and women in our society. Gender pay gaps are the least of it.

Yes of course the thousands of men working in our health services are also at risk. My point is not to reduce the importance of their fight in this battle. I fear for them all. Every one of them are to be saluted for doing what most of us would not – running towards danger, even if they do not have the correct protective equipment.

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However, at the end of this, when this virus is tamed – or hopefully defeated – we must remember the women. We must remember who the key workers really are. We must find a new respect for these roles. We must pay them accordingly and continue to clap them – if not on our doorsteps, then in our hearts and minds.

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