MINI REVIEW published: 26 March 2021 doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2021.642662 The Covid-19 Pandemics: why Intersectionality Matters Lara Maestripieri * Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Laboratory of Social Policies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy Covid-19 has been a disrupting event in contemporary social life but is far from being a great equaliser. Preliminary studies have put in evidence how different social groups faced a differentiated risk of contagion and coped differently with the various consequences of the emergency. Evidence shows how minorities and migrants face disproportionally higher risks of contagion than the white upper and middle class, and how vulnerable communities are more exposed to deaths and the rapid spread of the virus. At the same time, societies are coping with social distancing measures and their disruptive social and economic consequences, which have a more significant impact on the most vulnerable segments of societies: women, children, low-income classes and ethnic minorities. This article argues that an intersectional framework allows an understanding of what is occurring in the current pandemic, both in terms of its social determinants and social consequences. To open the Edited by: Delali A. Dovie, black box of inequality, intersectional scholars analyze the intersections of multiple University of Ghana, Ghana structures of inequalities (such as gender, age, class, ethnicity), which have a Reviewed by: multiplying effect when disadvantaged positions intersect in the same individual. Covid- Carlos J. Fernández Rodríguez, Autonomous University of Madrid, 19 is a clear example of an intersectional phenomenon: the impact of individual and Spain community exposure to Covid-19 is the results of multiple and interrelating structures of Ines Wagner, inequality. Up to now, research in social sciences has underestimated the role of Institute for Social Research Norway, Norway intersectionality in analyzing the social and economic consequences of this pandemic. *Correspondence: Keywords: COVID-19, intersectionality, social distancing measures, structural inequality, gender, age, class, ethnic Lara Maestripieri background lara.maestripieri@polimi.it ORCID: Lara Maestripieri INTRODUCTION orcid.org/0000-0003-4710-1653 Covid-19 is not a great equaliser (Alfani, 2020; Berkhout and Richardson, 2020; Fisher et al., 2020; Specialty section: Galasso, 2020; Lokot and Bathia, 2020). Like other more recent pandemics such as the Spanish flu in This article was submitted to 1918 or HIV in the ’80s, the virus spread more easily among the vulnerable population. Furthermore, Work, Employment and Organizations, the economic consequences of social distancing measures are leading to an increase of inequalities a section of the journal compared to pre-pandemic times (Alfani, 2020; Haase, 2020; Montenovo et al., 2020; Ryan and El Frontiers in Sociology Ayadi, 2020) and interact with pre-existing inequalities along dimensions such as gender, age, socio- Received: 16 December 2020 economic conditions, geography (Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020). However, the current debate on the Accepted: 18 February 2021 effects of Covid-19 has not sufficiently considered how the intersections between existing structures Published: 26 March 2021 of inequalities affect the impact of Covid-19 on societies. In this paper, I argue that these studies have Citation: forgotten the relevance that possible intersections might have in determining the social effects of this Maestripieri L (2021) The Covid-19 Pandemics: why pandemic. Intersectionality Matters. The relationship between Covid-19 and the inequality structure occurs along two dimensions: Front. Sociol. 6:642662. how current inequality structures affect the spread of the infection and how its containment doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2021.642662 measures affect the existing systems of inequality (Holst et al., 2020). The debate about the social Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org 1 March 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 642662 Maestripieri Why Intersectionality Matters determinants of health is long-standing in sociology: it focuses on represented, leading to a higher impact on their individual how education, socio-economic conditions and the environment income (Alon et al., 2020). Blundell et al. (2020) demonstrated in which people live affect their health (Scambler, 2019; Burton that in United Kingdom women, young and low-paid workers are et al., 2020; Joseph, 2020). Covid-19 is a social disease (Trout and those that suffered the most from the lockdown. In Italy, Galasso Kleinman, 2020): the likelihood of getting infected is influenced (2020) observed adverse effects on blue collars, low-educated by economic inequalities. The virus is more likely to hit harder workers and low-income services workers as well. Social among those who have a concurrent illness, live in over-crowded distancing implied more significant job losses among ethnic housing or lack regular access to health services (Burton et al., minorities in the United States, especially Hispanics (Béland 2020; Holst et al., 2020; Horton, 2020). Furthermore, Covid-19 et al., 2020; Montenovo et al., 2020). Layoffs in the distribution is also correlated with the vulnerability of the United States exacerbated pre-existing forms of parental status communities (Fisher et al., 2020; Hatef et al., 2020). When and gender inequality in employment, with a consistent ethnically segregated, the spread of Covid-19 in a community fatherhood premium (Dias et al., 2020). Thus, mothers more is greater (Joseph, 2020). In the debate about social determinants than father were more likely to exit the labor force during the of health, the need for an intersectional approach has long been pandemics and, significantly, mothers of the youngest children recognized (Lopez and Gadsen, 2016). reduced their working hours five times more than fathers (Collins But Covid-19 is not only a medical issue but a “social disaster” et al., 2020). The 80% of job loss in Europe occurred among as well (Connell, 2020). The social distancing necessary to avoid temporary workers, with youth employment significantly the spread of the virus determines its social impact. These affected; the sharpest decrease occurred in elementary measures affect societies in three manners: 1). exposing occupations (−10%) and sales (−8%) (Eurostat, 2020). Blundell existing vulnerabilities, 2). reinforcing current inequalities, 3). et al. (2020) also observed a more substantial reduction in amplifying social differences in the future because of scarring earnings for low-income workers and self-employed workers. effects (Haase, 2020). Thus, the scope of this review is to argue In the global South, informal work has been significantly affected that an intersectional analytical framework is necessary to grasp by job loss, affecting disproportionally the least well-off (Fisher the full social consequences of Covid-19. et al., 2020). As such, the shutdown affected mostly vulnerable and disadvantaged workers: in general, families that were already in a condition of economic insecurity and working precariousness EXPLORING THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF suffered the most from the shutdowns. COVID-19 PANDEMICS UNDER AN In conclusion, the more fragile workers were more likely to stop working and to suffer immediate income loss from the social INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE distancing measures that affected mostly low-skilled services The unprecedented measures taken for coping with Covid-19 sectors (Blundell et al., 2020; Galasso, 2020). The variance in have disrupted the labor market, with most recent ILO job losses in terms of demographic characteristics depends on the estimations indicating that 93% of the world’s workers sorting between different sectors (Montenovo et al., 2020): the experienced some sort of workplace closures. Shuts down have affected sectors showed a predominance of youth, minorities, implied a relevant loss in working hours (8.8% compared to women and low-skilled workers, usually employed with 2019), growing inactivity and unemployment rates, with a decline temporary contracts or in precarious working conditions, of 8.3% in labor income globally (source: ILO Monitor, seventh including solo self-employment. Edition, January 2021). The following sections review the empirical evidence emerging from on-going research Key workers vs. Teleworking conducted worldwide on the social consequences of Covid-19 Even during stricter restrictions, the majority of workers social distancing measures. continued their working activities. In a study from Eurofond (2020), about half of the labor force worked at least once from Shutdown Sectors home during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemics. Measures of social distancing caused the closures of non-essential However, working conditions were highly differentiated working activities with consequent massive layoffs and furloughs. between those who could reorganize their work entirely at Activities involving frequent interpersonal contacts suffered more home and those who had to continue working in their usual prolonged closures and could not easily turn to telework. Given workplace. Class divides clearly marked this separation. its characteristics, the crisis has been defined a “pink recession” as The expansion of teleworking following the COVID-19 it affected especially sectors in which women are the majority of outbreak is strongly skewed toward high-paid and high-skilled employees, with gendered effects in terms of job loss and white-collar employment (European Commission, 2020; Sostero reduction of working hours (Matthewman and Huppatz, 2020). et al., 2020). Galasso and Foucalt (2020), analyzing data from Adams-Prassl et al. (2020) shows that sectors such as arts and surveys covering several 12 OECD countries, demonstrated that entertainment, education, food, accommodation and retail college graduates and white collars were overwhelmingly working suffered in all countries considered in their study from home. Apart from belonging to the most privileged strata of (United Kingdom, United States and Germany). The same labor markets, those who could telework were less likely to lose occurred in Australia (Churchill, 2020) and Italy (Galasso, their jobs during pandemics (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020; 2020). These are sectors in which women are over- Montenovo et al., 2020) and to suffer from their economic Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org 2 March 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 642662 Maestripieri Why Intersectionality Matters consequences (Béland et al., 2020). Teleworking sectors are those had more difficulties in buying adequate instruments to support in which gender divides are lower. Still, women were more likely home schooling or to have sufficient space for study at home to reduce their working hours when teleworking due to the (Auriemma and Iannaccone, 2020; Blundell et al., 2020; Reimer increasing burden of unpaid work with lockdown schools and et al., 2020). Better-off families are more likely to have both the lack of help from primary networks following self-isolation parents accessing teleworking, increasing the family’s capacity to (Hipp and Bünning, 2020). cope with home schooling thanks to a more equal distribution of Conversely, key workers belong to essential sectors such as unpaid care (Craig, 2020; Del Boca et al., 2020; Hipp and health care, supermarkets and cleaning, and could rarely access Bünning, 2020). They have better houses with wider spaces teleworking. They are usually poorly paid with less welfare and more capacity to face unexpected expenses, such as the protection than other categories (Horton, 2020). Although devices needed for home schooling (Blundell et al., 2020). they were not exposed to unemployment, key workers faced a Furthermore, data from live surveys in Italy (Del Boca et al., higher risk of Covid-19 exposure (Montenovo et al., 2020), with 2020), Spain (Bonal and González, 2020), Germany, Ireland and consequent high proportions of contagion and deaths among United Kingdom (Dietrich et al., 2020) show that not all the them (van Barneveld et al., 2020). Essential sectors are parents looked after children in the same way: mothers holding a disproportionally populated by low-skilled women and ethnic degree and their partner spent more time on children’s education, minorities, usually employed with precarious working conditions even controlling for working arrangements. All preliminary and low pay. More than 50% of those who continue working in evidence shows that schooling disruptions are likely to affect place despite restrictions belong to the lowest educated groups in students’ cognitive development and educational attainment with the United Kingdom (Blundell et al., 2020). Despite their essential 65% of young reporting lesser learning outcomes since pandemics role and the general appreciation that healthcare workers received (ILO 2020), but with differentiated effects depending on classes. during the pandemics, frontline workers could not capitalize on Educational inequalities are more pronounced in the Global the pandemics for improving their job conditions or increasing its South: families with children accessing private education have monetary value. been further advantaged since public schools could not provide In conclusion, the capacity of teleworking reinforces pre- even basic online teaching (Fisher et al., 2020). existing labor market inequalities. High-skilled and high-paid In conclusion, the social consequences of school closures again workers were more likely to preserve their jobs and to work safely affected the most vulnerable populations: children and young, through lockdowns, avoiding income loss. On the contrary, key especially if they belong to low socio-economic backgrounds or frontline workers, mostly active in service and care jobs, are live in the Global South, might experience persisting scarring disproportionally low paid and more exposed to contagion. effects that might compromise their educational attainment in the Sorting among the two groups of workers depends on future. At the same time, families were particularly stressed, with education and earnings, with the most shielded group additional care burden distributed unevenly among genders. belonging to the highest classes. Home Confinement School Closures Self-isolation imposed generally on the population implied a After decades of externalization, pandemics have increased the renovated relevance of housing in terms of accessing sufficient internalization of care for dependent family members, especially and secure space. Houses have suddenly become the space in children (Hupkau and Pentrongolo, 2020). School closures which people work, study and spend their free time with the implied a deeper involvement of families, both in care and consequences of exacerbating inequalities between those who can education; and many couples have to concentrate work and access sufficient space for all family members and those who home schooling in the same (domestic) space (Craig, 2020). cannot (Auriemma and Iannaccone, 2020). Socially excluded Social distancing also precluded support from primary populations, such as homeless, refugees or those who have networks, such as friends, neighbors or grandparents (Blaskó fragile access to housing have been significantly affected by et al., 2020). The care burden was particularly heavy for single home confinement for their chronic lack of secure access to parents (van Barneveld et al., 2020). Not surprisingly, most of housing. Especially for undocumented migrants, their undeclared these additional care hours have been carried out by women. conditions implied a higher likelihood of losing their jobs when School closures affected children and youth disproportionally, home confinement took place. Usually, they were excluded from with a systematic and more profound impact on young from low income support schemes or housing protection measures, leaving socio-economic backgrounds (ILO, 2020). The impossibility to go them particularly exposed to insecurity and poverty (Guadagno, to school has meant the incapacity to secure food, health, access to 2020). services for the lowest-income households (Blundell et al., 2020; Furthermore, home confinement and school closure have also Fisher et al., 2020), and widened educational inequalities among implied an increase of gender-based violence, since women and children of different socio-economic backgrounds (Reimer et al., children were locked up with their persecutors without the 2020). Increase in children’s inequality occurred primarily when capacity to evade or to ask for help (Evans et al., 2020; Fisher students were taught online (Reimer et al., 2020). In fact, digital et al., 2020). Data from the US showed an increase of up to 30% of inequalities strongly affected the capacity of families to cope with reports on intimate violence (Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020), a trend online teaching (Auriemma and Iannaccone, 2020; Puckett and confirmed in China (Sacco et al., 2020). In other countries, the Rafalow, 2020): families with lower socio-economic backgrounds number of reports dramatically fell, as happened in Italy (Sacco Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org 3 March 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 642662 Maestripieri Why Intersectionality Matters et al., 2020), because of the impossibility for women to ask for not a uniform group (Berkhout and Richardson, 2020): women help outside the family. Additionally, financial insecurity might differ among each other for their socio-economic conditions, if force victims to stay with their abuser (OECD, 2020). Domestic they have a partner that can support the increased burden of violence is a phenomenon that cuts across all levels of income, unpaid work determined by school closure, if they belong to education and occupation; however, empirical evidence on the vulnerable communities or have access to adequate housing. And Covid-19 effects on domestic violence are too preliminary to this happens for all the other groups considered: data showed that argue if they tend to concentrate among families of lower socio- almost three quarters of youth suffered from an interruption in economic background. their education, but for those belonging to low socio-economic In conclusion, the adverse effects of home confinement were classes this situation will probably imply a scarring effect in future not evenly distributed across social groups. The preliminary educational attainment and, consequently, in their future capacity empirical evidence shows the higher vulnerability of women to secure their living on the labor market (ILO, 2020). and children, and socially excluded populations compared to Focusing on only one axis of inequality at a time impedes the better-off families, both in terms of access to adequate grasping the real reach of the pandemic effect and its unequal housing and safe environment for study and living. Domestic distribution across social groups in society. Applying an violence has been on the rise for the incapacity of women to intersectional approach to Covid-19 implies using a fractal escape their persecutors during home confinement measures. analytical approach to the complexity of reality, as shown in Figure 1: independently of which axis of inequality we consider as first, the inclusion of the others generates a tree THE INTERSECTIONAL PANDEMIC of multiple inequalities in which the focus lies at the EFFECTS intersections, not at the single analytical dimension. In each intersection, the experience of Covid-19 and the relative The intersectional theory has gained increased success over recent vulnerability changes. years in women’s studies for its capacity to go beyond a simple Measures of containment did not equally affect economic binary approach to gender inequalities. In fact, intersectionality sectors, nor countries: each government decided which considers what occurs when multiple axes of inequalities enter in measure to implement, in certain cases lengthy interruptions relation, so that gender should always be seen in interactive and in school provisions and longer duration of home confinement, complex relations with other factors, such as ethnicity, class, age, while in others only lighter restrictions in the activities considered etc. (Berkhout and Richardson, 2020; Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020; at highest risk of interpersonal contacts. The social and economic Ryan and El Ayadi, 2020). Under this perspective, these structures effects of the pandemics depended not only on the individual of inequalities are «crosscutting and mutually reinforcing systems characteristics of the person but on the type of policy response to of domination and subordination», which «may construct it, with certain countries—such as Southern Europe—more multiple, uneven and contradictory social patterns» (Anthias exposed than others (Moreira et al., 2020). As Wenham et al. 2005, 36–37). They are interrelated but different systems of (2020) reported, only 16 countries have enforced social protection inequality. Thus, people hold positions that may be conflicting measures that make explicit reference to women, overlooking the with each other—such as for black middle-class women, who are fact that the worst economic consequences of this crisis are likely privileged for their belonging to the middle class but to affect women. Quite rarely women or ethnic minorities were discriminated for their being women and blacks. included in the political and technical committees that managed As seen in the previous section (§ Exploring the Social Impact the emergency, and parliament’s voicing capacity was of Covid-19 Pandemics Under an Intersectional Perspective significantly undermined by the need to make rapid decisions Section), pandemics’ direct and indirect social consequences (Blaskó et al., 2020; OECD, 2020; United Nations, 2020). The lack impacted differentially on individuals belonging to different of an intersectional lens in assuming decisions to fight the social groups. Each of the phenomenon considered (the emergency might drive away governments in their capacity to closure of non-essential sectors, teleworkers and key workers, tackle the social consequences of Covid-19 effectively. school closures and home confinement) had an impact Future research with an intersectional perspective is differentiated by gender, class, age, ethnic background (etc.), required to understand the complexity of the current while these structures of inequalities were mutually reinforcing situation and tailor policy responses to cope with this each other at the intersections. For example, we can consider the complexity. The empirical evidence provided in this article case of a single mother working in an essential sector coping with has confirmed the stances of those authors that call for the care and education of her children in the total absence of help intersectionality in analyzing the effects of Covid-19 from public services and primary networks. Her vulnerability (Bowleg, 2020; Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020; Ryan and El does not merely emerge from the fact that she is female but from Ayadi, 2020; Wenham et al., 2020). Up to now, data have the contemporaneous presence of other disadvantaged conditions been just collected without sufficiently considering how the (being a single mother and a key worker) that magnify her different structures of inequality intersect. Using an vulnerability facing an adverse event (the social distancing due intersectional approach underlines the difference in the to pandemics). impact of pandemics between individuals and social groups, Each social group we have identified as particularly vulnerable and helps in designing policy responses that mitigate, instead of to the pandemic (women, young, children, ethnic minorities) is increase, the potential unequal effect of this pandemic. Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org 4 March 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 642662 Maestripieri Why Intersectionality Matters FIGURE 1 | The figure represents in a simplified way the logical reasoning behind applying an intersectional approach to a social phenomenon, such as Covid-19. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and I would like to thank Andrea Bellini for reading a preliminary has approved it for publication. version of this text. Burton, C., Bennett, D. H. S., and Burton, L. M. (2020). COVID-19: Health REFERENCES disparities and social determinants of health. Int. Soc. Work 63, 771–776. doi:10. 1177/0020872820944985 Adams-Prassl, A., Boneva, T., Golin, M., and Rauh, C. (2020). Inequality in the Churchill, B. (2020). COVID-19 and the immediate impact on young people and impact of the coronavirus shock: evidence from real time surveys. J. Public Econ. employment in Australia: a gendered analysis. Gend. 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Sociol 5, 588279. doi:10.3389/fsoc.2020.588279 Copyright © 2021 Maestripieri. This is an open-access article distributed under the Lopez, N., and Gadsden, V. L. (2016). Health inequities, social determinants, and terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution intersectionality. NAM Perspectives.Discussion paper. Washington, DC: or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the National Academy of Medicine. copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is Matthewman, S., and Huppatz, K. (2020). A sociology of Covid-19. J. Sociol. 56, cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or 675–683. doi:10.1177/1440783320939416 reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org 6 March 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 642662