In the final analysis, it is not accurate to say that the current pandemic brought only the bad things to humanity. Let us look at it from all the three aspects, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good that the pandemic brought us—is about four things:
- It is giving women more time with the family and the kids. The kids who seldom had a heart-to-heart, quality time to communicate properly with their Century-21st hurried mothers—and fathers—because of all the time they had to spend in school, daycare, after-school activities, and such. This time is going to have a profound higher-morality effect on the younger generation, in terms of inheriting the family values.
- Women with no kids at home can strengthen their good relationship with their husbands or significant others—and show how they care in a meaningful way. If your relationship is basically good, the extra time in a lockdown can make it better—so focus on it, fight the boredom, express gratitude without reservation, you can make it–so make it!
- The remote working already became normal. Consider for yourself: before the pandemic, only one in 50 Americans worked from home full-time. Since April, more than one in three did—and many of them are women. That is definitely good news for busy mothers as they have more forgiving hours for family matters plus less commute.
- The new norms for labor distribution at the home front – with more involvement of men – is good too, and will hopefully benefit women in the long term.
That is all about the good things, so – count your blessings.
The bad that the pandemic brought upon us—is about four other things:
- The unfolding pandemic-rooted recession is the worst mankind has seen since the WWII. Multiple media outlets – including The Economist – report that it is different from the previous recessions, because it struck mostly the women-dominated businesses, for instance, hospitality, restaurants, schools, and healthcare.
- The fact of women losing their jobs deepens gender inequality across all industries. Even education and healthcare have not been spared, with 5 times as many women losing their jobs as men. That’s too bad.
- The lower-skilled women are the most vulnerable demographic under the pandemic, because they cannot work from home.
- Even in a better-case scenario of women who can work from home – along with their husbands – they get interrupted by kids 50% as much. Plus, most childcare and household chores are still on them, so quality of their work suffers. For example, academic journals report less submissions from women, while men’s submissions remain the same level. That’s too sad.
And lastly, the ugly aspect of the pandemic is that under a lockdown, many relationships deteriorate and collapse. As a result, the divorce rates go up—which was registered first in China, and then – everywhere else. This is a worldwide phenomenon.
But the ugliest thing the pandemic unleashed is that the domestic violence is increasing worldwide – because some aggressive types of males cannot contain their inherent violence – and their women and children suffer from severe beatings. We reported about it in our vlog and talk-show, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuToN7Qki7w&t=703s.
Final thought
We, women–and the men who encourage and support us–need to recognize the current pandemic for what it means for us overall, in good, bad, and ugly terms. We need a balanced view on life under the pandemic—because the healthcare professionals say the coronavirus is going to stay with us for a long time, with or without the vaccine. We need to keep in mind that through this tough time of lingering pandemic lockdown, we rise by lifting others, our friends and family—so, let’s stay strong and resilient to be up to the task!