Gender Impact of Public Policies in the Czech Republic during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Presented paper aims to analyze the gender impact of implemented anti-pandemic policies in the Czech Republic (CR). The effects of the pandemic in a similar way to the previous global crisis, are highly gendered and vary by socioeconomic status, age, ethnicity/race, migration status and other relevant categories and their intersection (Lokot, Avakyan 2020; Walter, McGregor 2020). Using the approach of feminist institutionalism (Mackay et al. 2010) and theoretical framework based on a gender perspective (Lombardo et al. 2017), we examined the impact of anti-pandemic policy on existing gender inequalities in care and work in the CR and the factors determining this impact. Our research is based on policy analysis and existing quantitative and qualitative data on both European and global level and within the Czech context. The analysis is supplemented by semi-structured interviews with members of government advisory bodies related to the pandemic conducted in 2020-21. Based on the findings, we argue that several key factors triggered a highly gendered and unequal impact in the CR - preexisting gender regime based on a care-oriented understanding of the position of women in society, the gender decision-making gap, and low status of gender expertise within Czech institutional dynamics. The implemented policies lacked a gender and inter-sectional dimension and overwhelmingly focused on the so-called average citizen, i.e., a white, straight, full-time employed person. As a result, they reinforced traditional gender roles and the precarious situation of women in the labor market.