The Gendered Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental

Abstract

Using the Statistics Canada survey on the Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians and the General Social Survey of 2016, this paper examines the gender gap in self-rated mental health and perceived life stress, among working Canadians. The two datasets are pooled to account for the fact that a gender gap in these outcomes already existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimation approach is akin to the difference-in-difference methodology. Females are found more strongly strained by the pandemic in both of these outcomes. Interestingly, these gender gaps are driven by those who do not face an immediate financial concern. Moreover, the post-pandemic data reveal that females have much larger concerns for societal factors such as the effects of the pandemic on health of vulnerable people and the overloading of the healthcare system than men. This pattern is consistent with two well-documented
gender differences: (i) the greater prosociality and (ii) the greater "safetyism" of women. Policy implications are discussed.