To survive, women must mutate, believes Marita, 32, as she faces the end of the work from home (WFH) arrangement that has enabled the business process outsourcing (BPO) employee to juggle better her work and family responsibilities during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

Marita’s company will comply starting April 2022 with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority’s (Peza) directive for all registered companies to enforce a 100 percent return to office (RTO) to continue availing of Peza incentives.

More than two years ago, Marita, her partner, and their two toddlers returned to Bohol and lived with his family, cutting down on rental, commuting, food, child care, and other cost of living expenses, which were higher when they lived in Cebu City.

“The impacts of crises are never gender-neutral, and Covid-19 is no exception,” points out unwomen.org in a Sept. 16, 2020 post.

The Covid-19 pandemic contributes to the worsening of the gender-poverty gap, which affects disproportionately more women than men because of these continuing realities: women work more but earn less; have fewer savings; work more in the informal economy; have less access to social protections; are burdened with unpaid care and domestic work, often forcing them to drop out of the work force; and head the majority of single-parent households, according to the UN Women, a United Nations organization championing gender equality and women empowerment.

Ann buys and sells siomai in their neighborhood to augment the earnings of her husband, who works for a food delivery company. She lost her job as a utilities worker when a company closed one of its offices during the pandemic.

The uptick in online food purchases during the initial years of the pandemic enabled Ann to set aside funds from the family budget to go into siomai-selling. However, the reopening of businesses with the decreased pandemic alert, followed by the sharp increase in fuel prices and heavier traffic concern Ann, who worries that the earnings of the couple will diminish and with it, the family’s stability.

With less than two months away from the May 9 election, it is crucial for voters to scrutinize electoral candidates for their agenda and programs to enable women, especially the most vulnerable, to overcome the setbacks created by the Covid-19 pandemic to their economic security.

As the UN Women argues, economic insecurity goes beyond loss of jobs and reduced earnings. The greater the financial dependence of women on their husbands and partners, the greater their vulnerability to intimate partner dominance and violence.

Marginalization is reinforced down generations, with girls more likely than boys to be forced to drop out of school, work for a living, mind younger siblings, or be exploited through online trafficking.

Citizens should scrutinize how electoral candidates and local governments plan or implement programs to enable women to hurdle transitions in the pandemic. The UN Women identifies these key areas where support is crucial: economic support packages, such as direct cash-transfers and expanded family and child benefits for vulnerable women and their families; social protection systems that grant equal pay for work of equal value, and affordable and quality childcare services to free up women to join the work force; and social protection and benefits for informal workers, majority of whom are women.

As advocated by the UN Women, citizens can converge with public and private sectors in supporting women-initiated or -led enterprises, which should be prioritized for government’s economic relief programs, such as grants and subsidized micro-loans.

Second, civil society must recognize and reconcile women’s multiple burdens of paid and unpaid work through paid leaves, flexible work arrangements, childcare arrangements, and sharing of domestic duties among partners.

Empowering women means sustaining the futures of families and communities.