Women and COVID-19. The perspective of Spanis female social workers during the first wave of the pandemic

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on women professionals in social services in Spain and to determine which variables may have aff ected them to a greater or lesser extent. The consequences of the pandemic are not gender-neutral, so it is particularly relevant to know the perspective of this highly feminised professional group, which continued to carry out its essential activity during the hardest moments of the pandemic. For this purpose, a sample of 466 women professionals in the sector was obtained in fi eldwork carried out between 1 and 19 April 2020. The results showed that social workers perceived great diffi culty in continuing to carry out their functions in this context, as well as a notorious aff ectation both personally and professionally, with the youngest, those with the least seniority in the organisation and those with dependent children being the most aff ected in some of the diff erent aspects analysed.