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Results from the European project RESISTIRÉ show that the pandemic outbreak and policies adopted to contain the virus have reinforced pre-existing gender inequalities, resulting in a “spiral of increasing inequalities” (Axelsson et al., 2021: 110). The care domain is a key part of this spiral and has been at the centre of debates and of some of the COVID-19 policy responses. However, for the most part, policy interventions in the care domain have focused primarily on work-life balance, neglecting the impact of health-related policy restrictions on domestic workers – a highly feminised and racialised sector. Yet these workers have been dramatically affected by the pandemic and related policies, not only in terms of exposure to infection, but also in terms of exacerbation of pre-existing and intersecting inequalities. Moreover, when policies did address the domestic sector, they often reproduced gender stereotyped understandings of the nature of care work, and reinforced racist assumptions on migration. This paper compares the policies on domestic workers enacted during the pandemic in Italy and Spain, which illustrate how public policy engages in gendering and racializing domestic workers. Drawing on Bacchi’s methodology, it seeks to unfold and problematise the representations and implicit assumptions related to care work, and the gender and racial hierarchies underpinning them.

El fenómeno de la soledad se está convirtiendo, cada vez más, en un problema amplio y relevante de las sociedades contemporáneas. En consecuencia, son muchas las investigaciones que abordan esta realidad, como numerosas son también las intervenciones que tratan de hacerle frente, en especial tras la pandemia provocada por la COVID-19. Para acercar al lector a esta realidad, en el presente artículo se exponen de forma heurística las diversas posturas existentes sobre la soledad mediante una novedosa cartografía teórica que propone un nuevo recorrido por el actual estado de la cuestión del campo de la soledad, formado por las aportaciones de distintas disciplinas. Para ello se ha seguido un método de revisión bibliográfica reflexiva con el objetivo de generar nuevos alineamientos teóricos que esclarezcan las posiciones desde las que hoy se escribe acerca de la soledad. Finalmente, el texto esboza algunas líneas reflexivas que el acercamiento sociológico a la soledad deberá tener en cuenta para constituirse como interlocutor válido y valioso en el actual campo de estudio de la soledad.

La mayoría de las investigaciones sobre gobernanza multinivel desde una perspectiva de género han tenido como variable dependiente las políticas de igualdad (Haussman et al., 2010). Por el contrario, son menos frecuentes las investigaciones que analizan la presencia de las mujeres como protagonistas de la gobernanza multinivel, sus formas de actuación o el efecto de sus acciones en el resultado final (Gushchina y Kaiser, 2021). Esta investigación aborda esta perspectiva en una situación de pandemia, donde la urgencia y la interdependencia estimulan la regla de participación ejecutiva. La limitada presencia de mujeres en la gestión intergubernamental de la pandemia está estrechamente relacionada con su escasa presencia en los gobiernos. El poder ejecutivo y, en especial, la jefatura de gobierno siguen siendo un terreno cerrado para las mujeres. Actualmente, casi la mitad de los países de la Unión Europea no han tenido en su historia a ninguna mujer como primera ministra (Novo-Arbona, 2020). Sin embargo, los sistemas federales y descentralizados han representado una vía de acceso de las mujeres a las jefaturas de los poderes ejecutivos, y su presencia ha sido más común en las jefaturas de las unidades constituyentes. El porcentaje de mujeres ministras también ha aumentado considerablemente, y ellas han ocupado carteras más prestigiosas, como las de Asuntos Exteriores, Defensa o Economía, aunque tradicionalmente —y todavía hoy— es más habitual su presencia en las relacionadas con los cuidados, como los servicios sociales o el ámbito sanitario (Kroeber y Hüffelmann, 2021). Este artículo identifica los órganos de decisión multinivel más relevantes desde la declaración de la pandemia, la presencia de mujeres en ellos y su rol dentro de las organizaciones.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a multifaceted crisis, impacting health, the economy, policy and society at large, and also resulting in a humanitarian crisis. These crises have impacted everyone, although the effects have been unevenly distributed, leading to further disadvantage and marginalisation for those who were already vulnerable and marginalised. The pandemic laid bare and intensified pre-existing gender inequalities in many aspects of life, from the labor market and educational opportunities to health and social protection systems. The unequal impacts on women and men have been observed in the economy and employment, in domestic work and care, in physical and mental health, and in violence. The collection of articles in this special issue critically interrogates these key issues relating to the impact of the pandemic on gender equality in Europe, highlighting exacerbated gender inequalities, policy responses and the potential for a gender-responsive recovery. This special issue brings together a collection of eight articles that investigate various aspects of gender inequality exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that explore potential pathways towards achieving greater gender equality in the post-pandemic world. They summarise the findings and contributions of several social scientists and also of two EU funded projects: RESISTIRÉ (GA 101015990) and GEARING Roles (GA 824536). The articles are structured around five main themes: labor market disparities, education and skill development, social and political responses, post-pandemic opportunities, and care. Each article contributes unique insights, empirical findings and policy recommendations from a feminist perspective to enrich the ongoing discourse on gender equality. Together, the articles show the necessity of feminist analysis of crisis, and reveal the structural roots of inequalities while simultaneously emphasising the necessity for transformative action to address inequalities.

Society management and the COVID-19 pandemic require continuous restatement and consolidation. Furthermore, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development created by the United Nations establishes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations and where Goal 5 addresses gender equality as a central priority. The main aim of this paper is to present a crossed-analysis study on how the health crisis has influenced differently the social behaviour between gender and generations in Spain. For this study there have been used a massive open data from the Sociological Research Centre (CIS). The mixed techniques´ methodology of this research was applied to study four social effect dimensions, such as “way of living”, “way of thinking”, “way of self-healthcare” and “social habits and behaviour”. The used techniques contributed analytically to gender and generations management during the pandemic with the intent of complementarity. Obtained findings by analysing four studied dimensions explain the effects and consequences of the pandemic involving differences between men and women, younger and older generations, leading to society management implications that can timely serve as a paradigm with scientific insights for public policies.

Healthcare workers were more than essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, a fact that is recognized by societies the world over. However, in many countries, healthcare workers are not satisfied with their working conditions, which has resulted in frequent protests and strikes. One such country is Spain. How can the theory of social dialogue contribute to explaining and improving healthcare workers’ conditions during a healthcare crisis such as this one? In this paper, we aim to explore what it is really like for healthcare professionals working under these challenging circumstances, and link their experience to the theory of social dialogue in order to engage in a double process of contribution: from practice to theory and vice versa. In order to do so, we first explore the real-world problems encountered by professionals, focusing particularly on cases in Spain, before reviewing theoretical approaches to the study of social dialogue in organizations, an area that has received very little attention in the revised academic literature. Finally, we show how constructive social dialogue can be an effective tool for improving working conditions for healthcare workers.