"Covid has impacted women's mental wellbeing"

New Delhi Responsibilities at work and at home have exponentially increased since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the burden is disproportionately impacting women, according to a report by consultancy firm Deloitte.

According to the Deloitte Global report, "Women @ Work: A global outlook," released on Wednesday, heightened workloads and household responsibilities during the Covid-19 pandemic are having devastating effects on working women, as 51 per cent of those surveyed are less optimistic about their career prospects.

The report represented views of 5,000 women across 10 countries, including 500 respondents from India, said that women's job satisfaction and mental wellbeing have been severely impacted by the pandemic. "The last year has been a 'perfect storm for many women facing increased workloads and greater responsibilities at home, a blurring of the boundaries between the two, and continued experiences of non-inclusive behaviours at work," says Emma Codd, Deloitte Global Inclusion Leader. Nearly 7 in 10 (69 per cent) women in India rated their job satisfaction as good or extremely good pre-Covid-19.

However, at present, only 28 per cent of women said the same, representing a sharp decreased from before the pandemic. Nearly 6 in 10 (57 per cent) women in India said their career is not progressing as fast as they would like, much higher than the global average of 42 per cent. Further, women in India are less hopeful about their career paths now than before the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 6 in 10 Indian women said they feel less optimistic about their career prospects now than before the pandemic, compared to 51 per cent of the global sample. "Instituting policies is no longer enough to change the experience of women colleagues, the "ways of working" needs to change to support this.