INTRODUCTION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, women disproportionately assume more unpaid activities, affecting their employment.
OBJECTIVE: Describe the influence of COVID-19 on the employment of caregivers of children and adolescents from a gender perspective.
METHODS: Cross-sectional study in three high-complexity hospitals in Bogotá, Colombia from April 2020 to June 2021. A subsample of the FARA cohort was taken, including those patients with a positive test for SARS-COV2. We took as our analysis category children older than 8 years and younger than 18 years who had a positive SARS-COV2 test, as well as, caregivers of all children with a positive SARS-COV2 test. This subsample was drawn from the FARA cohort. A survey was applied to them. We carried out a descriptive and stratified analysis by age group, educational, and socioeconomic level.
RESULTS: We included 60 surveys of caregivers and 10 surveys of children. The main caregiver in 94.8% of the cases was a female. At the beginning of the pandemic, 63.3% of the caregivers were employed, and 78.9% of those lost their employment. The vast majority of these caregiver were women (96.6%,
CONCLUSION: Caregivers of children with COVID-19 with low educational levels and lower socioeconomic conditions, as well as those with children under 5 years showed greater likelihood of employment loss between the interviewed subsample
