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This paper investigates gender differences in the short- and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment status in Argentina. Using individual cross-sectional and panel data from household surveys, we compare employment status (inactive, unemployed, self-employed, or employed, distinguishing between the formal and informal sectors) before, immediately after, and a year after the pandemic. We examine how gender intersects with education and age in affecting employment status transitions and the extent to which COVID-19 deepened gender, educational, and age inequalities. In the short term, the pandemic impacted the labor market position of men and women similarly. Partly because of the labor market policies of Argentina, the pandemic idled both men and women, particularly those in the informal sector but also the self-employed. However, after the pandemic, men regained their pre-pandemic status while women remained (or became) inactive. Within genders, labor market recovery varied with education and age. Young and less educated women were more exposed to the immediate and longer-term negative effects in a manner not observed among men. The pandemic accentuated not only gender inequalities in the labor market but also socioeconomic inequalities among women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the COVID-19 pandemic's immediate and long-term impact on Argentina's labor market with a focus on gender disparities and the mediating role of the public vs. private sectors. Using household survey data, we assess men and women's employment trends before, during, and after the pandemic. Our findings reveal gender-specific recovery patterns that interact with the employment sector. The most prominent short-term effect of the pandemic was a dramatic increase in inactivity for both men and women. However, men recovered their level of labor force participation sooner than women, and one of the mechanisms behind this disparity was sector employment. While men predominantly benefitted from quicker reintegration in both the formal and informal private sectors, women leaned toward the public sector for stability during and after the pandemic. The heightened feminization of public sector employment is a further indication that the sector is critical for sustaining women's employment and promoting gender equity in the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the increase in gender inequality in paid work during the pandemic to unpack the relative relevance of labor market and work-family conflict processes. Using panel data from the United States Current Population Survey, we examine four mechanisms in an integrated analysis that explicitly includes single-parent households and assesses the moderating role of women's economic position relative to their partners. The results indicate that increases in gender inequality during the pandemic were heavily concentrated in households with children but also partly connected to gender differences in prepandemic labor market positions and to the higher prevalence of women in lower earner position relative to their partners. Single parents were more negatively impacted than partnered parents, but the disproportionate concentration of this impact on women does not contribute much to increases in overall gender inequality due to the relatively smaller size of this group., (© The Author(s) 2022.)