Covid-19 is having severe consequences in Italy as one of the first and most hit countries in Europe. According to the first studies on the pandemic repercussions, women are one of the social groups most affected by the crisis.
The Italian region Umbria represents a privileged case study to understand the consequences of Covid-19 because of the limited spread of the virus during the first months of the crisis and the characteristics of its female population. During the ‘first wave’ of the pandemic emergency (February-May), Umbria was one of the regions least affected by Covid-19 in terms of number of cases and deaths (Ministry of Health data). Nonetheless, as the central government decided to implement national restrictive measures, Umbria had to adapt to the lockdown as well as the other territories. Furthermore, past studies have emphasized the virtuousness of the Umbrian context in the familistic Italian welfare system: according to Istat, in 2019 female employment rate was higher than the national average (58,0 versus 50,1) as well as the percentage of dual-earners’ families (52,1 versus 45,3) and highly educated female employment (78,2 versus 75,7).
As we already know that Covid-19 had dramatic consequences on female population, much more needs to be discovered about women social, working and living conditions during the crisis.
To this aim, we used a quantitative method: an online survey was submitted to the Umbrian population during August 2020 between the first and the second wave of the pandemic. The survey was organized in different thematic sections on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of respondents, reaction to the Covid-19 emergency in terms of personal well-being, appropriateness of information and restrictions. Multiple-choice and open questions were chosen to collect experiences, opinions, and data of citizens. The use of the survey has allowed to add important considerations on psychological and socioeconomic conditions of the female population to the recently published Istat national data. Furthermore, the high number of responses collected (1,092) represents a relevant sample for a region as small as Umbria.
Preliminary results suggest that 2,3% of female respondents were fired during the first wave of the crisis, for 16,5% of them job activity was suspended, and this is even more true in the case of low-skilled jobs; overall, 61,7% of women reported a high level of stress, especially the younger ones.
The analysis contributes to a more in-depth understanding of the impacts of Covid-19 on women living conditions with the aim of expanding the knowledge on an on-going crisis that is challenging women lives.
