The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's employment: The case of Bursa

In the last quarter of 2019, the newly emerged COVID-19 in the city of Wuhan, which is connected to the Hubei province of China, spread globally in a very short time and caused the entire pandemic. In addition to threatening human health, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected many areas economically, socially, socially and psychologically. States have taken a number of measures to prevent the spread of the disease. These measures have brought some negative consequences on the economies of the countries. One of the biggest economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been on employment. As a result of the measures taken by the states and quarantine practices, many businesses have stopped their activities temporarily or permanently. With the crisis experienced by businesses, layoffs have returned as job and income loss for the labor market. However, job and income loss was not at the same level for men and women. This thesis study was conducted to determine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's employment. For this purpose, the literature on women's employment during the COVID-19 pandemic process was scanned, women's employment was tried to be explained with statistics, and a field study was conducted by interviewing women who left their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bursa. The result reached at the end of the research; It has been observed that women, who are still in a secondary position in the labor market, are more adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic process than men. Keywords: Pandemic, Unemployment, Employment, Female Employment