Vulnerability of Indonesian Female Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted various social groups. The pandemic has had a potential disproportionately greater impact on vulnerable worker groups, including female workers. This condition will certainly worsen existing social and economic inequality in society, as evidenced by theories such as human capital theory, which highlights that women often have less accumulated work experience due to their domestic responsibilities, making them more susceptible to job losses and income reductions. This study aims to discuss the vulnerability of female workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The focus of this research looks at the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic on the vulnerability of female workers, which is divided into three main aspects, namely the risk of losing their job, the risk of decreasing income, and changes in the number of working hours that women experience. This research uses logit regression analysis and data from the 2021 National Labor Force Survey (SAKERNAS). Our findings show that female workers are on average more vulnerable than male workers, both in terms of losing their jobs, reducing income, and having to be exploited by the number of hours worked, which must be excessive. In addition, several control variables such as demographics, individual characteristics, and employment sectors were also examined in our research. The implications of this research suggest that the government is expected to implement some high-road labor market policies.