Concern about the effects of the pandemic caused by covid-19 in the retail sector in Spain. Differences between men and women

The pandemic caused by covid-19 is generating important changes in organizations and in the ways of working. Restrictions on the mobility of citizens and quarantines decreed by governments to try to stop contagions in the population are causing decreases in forecasts for economic growth and predictions of a new economic crisis. In Spain, the professional sectors most affected by this crisis are tourism, catering and commercial, and especially the retail sector. The pandemic is not over and its effects on the workplace may be even worse than those that have already occurred. Furthermore, in Spain women suffer worse working conditions and have been more affected by previous economic crises. In this context, it is important to know if there are differences between men and women in their perception of the effects that covid-19 can have at the workplace. In this study, 467 retail sector workers (188 men and 279 women) answered a short eight-item survey on their perception of the effects of the pandemic on their job, on a five-point Likert scale. Comparison of the responses given by gender showed that women have more uncertainty in their work (men = 3.4 vs. women = 4.1); they have noticed more changes at the psychosomatic level (men = 3.1 vs. women = 3.6); they are more afraid that their employment situation will be affected by the pandemic (men = 3.6 vs. women = 4.2) and they consider that their situation will worsen (men = 3.4 vs. women = 3.9) (p ≤ 0.001 in all cases). However, both genders showed the same high concern about the pandemic and similar levels in terms of how the covid-19 had affected them at the workplace. The results of this study allow us to conclude that although, for now, the pandemic has negatively and similarly affected men and women in terms of their work, expectations about the future effects of the crisis caused by covid-19 are worse for women than for men.