Are women better at lockdown than men?

• Read the full research article by Liana R. Woskie and our associate academic Dr Clare Wenham at medRxiv

Panama implemented a state-enforced lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19 which was sex-segregated. Women are allowed out of the house on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and men on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On these days, individuals were only allowed to go to the supermarket or the pharmacy. This was further limited by the last digit on national ID cards specifying the hours in which one could go out. The aim was to significantly reduce public mobility and reduce risk of disease transmission, with the rules being “easily” understandable and enforceable for the majority of the population.

Through a retrospective analysis of global geographic positioning (GPS) data, this study presents an overview of aggregate mobility in Panama following the country’s implementation of a sex-segregated social distancing policy. Panama was selected as it was the only nationwide sex-segregated policy which endured for the entire extent of the lockdown period. The paper looks at mobility trends on female- and male-sex mobility days, examining differences in volume of movement and type of community locations visited as compared to pre-COVID trends.

Importantly, we find fewer visits to all community location categories on female-mobility days. This, we suggest, demonstrates that women appear to be better at lockdown than men. Though we cannot provide a categorical answer to the question of why, we do present a number of potential justifications: 1) given widespread limitations on mobility, “going to the shops” may represent a new form of household bargaining, with men negotiating or deciding to perform this role if this is their only choice to get out of the house; 2) women’s predominant role as childcare providers may prevent them from easily leaving the house; 3) risk perceptions and men “going out” to get supplies for their family because women don’t want to.

Moreover, this policy raises further concerns for women’s participation in civic spaces and a retrenchment to the public/private divide, women’s mobility and the risk of domestic violence, gender identity and discrimination against non-binary and trans groups.

As the Panamanian government recently relaxed and then reimplemented this sex-segregated lockdown policy, we suggest that this data provides pertinent analysis of its impact across society.