Performing gender: Social workers' roles during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

Women social workers' roles during COVID-19 have been under-researched. We contribute to fill-ing this gap by examining patriarchal inequalities in the pay and status of women social workers in Wuhan, China to determine whether change occurred when they replaced men in first-tier re-sponder or protector roles when the government replaced men in frontline social work with women social workers. We conducted a qualitative investigation into these practitioners' work during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Wuhan from 23 January to April 7, 2020 through 30 in-depth interviews of women social workers (11 working in Residents' Committees, 12 in NGOs from Wuhan and six other cities; and 7 in other local organizations). The findings highlight how women social workers' roles shifted during the pandemic from being second-tier responders to as-suming the first-tier responder or 'protector' roles previously held by men while they continued their second-tier responders' and traditional caring roles. Despite this shift, the data show that women's demands for higher pay and status and involvement in decision-making structures re-mained unmet. Although women resisted unequal gender relations, doing men's roles as protec-tors loaded them with a 'triple' burden as protectors, second-tier responders and carers. The lack of gender equality for these women social workers highlights an urgency for policymakers and practitioners to promote gender equality by implementing women social workers' entitlements to pay parity, engagement in decision-making, and assumption of leadership roles, i.e., as men's equals.

Automated summary

This study fills the research gap on the roles of women social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines patriarchal inequalities in the pay and status of women social workers in Wuhan, China, and finds that their roles have shifted but their demands for higher pay, status, and involvement in decision-making remain unmet.