Gender and Employment. Recalibrating Women’s Labor Market Position in Times of COVID-19
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021)
Special Issue Editors
Interests: equal opportunities; gender and employment; flexibility; diversity; work-life fit
Interests: labor markets; sustainable employability; gender issues; flexibility; self employment; retirement; life course and career issues; human capital
Interests: comparative social policy (comparative welfare states, industrial relations and citizenship regimes) and social inequalities (related to work, care, communities and families, in particular in relation to gender, generations, and sexuality)
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of women in the labor market and the hitherto unrecognized value of essential occupations such as care and education. Across the world, people applauded care workers from their balconies, in essence clapping for the many women employed in the strongly-feminized care sector. Similarly, workers in the strongly-feminized educational sector have shown resilience and tenacity in providing school-age children with opportunities to continue education using digital tools during Corona-induced lockdowns. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a dramatic increase in working from home, has also underlined the value of childcare centres, where the majority of staff are female. The COVID-19 pandemic therefore raises key questions such as:
- Why does female (paid and unpaid) labor remain so undervalued? Has the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the value of (some forms of) female labor?
- In which countries and/or occupations is there still a gender pay gap and why?
- Are there any signs of diminishing occupational and/or vertical segregation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic?
- To what extent will the COVID-19 pandemic change gender relations in the labor market?
- Moving forward after the COVID-19 crisis: how and in what ways might women take the lead in shaping a more sustainable economy, based on a broader concept of welfare that goes beyond the traditional welfare concept primarily focused on economic growth?
Taking into account developments over the past decades, the contributions to this Special Issue aim to give a clear overview of women’s current labor market position, with an eye on likely and potential changes brought about by the global experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic.
We welcome contributions from a broad variety of disciplines (such as economics, sociology, gender studies, demography, organizational studies) which use a broad variety of methodologies (quantitative or qualitative) that deal with issues related to the questions outlined above.
Dr. Chantal Remery
Prof. Dr. Joop Schippers
Dr. Mara A. Yerkes
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- gender inequality
- occupational segregation
- care work
- gender pay gap
- glass ceiling
- work-family fit
- work-life balance
- international comparative
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
