Gender Issues on The Impact of Covid-19 Among Female Migrants and Families

. Indonesia has been sending female migrant workers overseas since the 70s. The covid-19 pandemic has hit these women hence they worked as the breadwinners for their families. The research aimed to study gender issues as the impact of covid-19 among the international female migrants and their left-behind families in Indonesia, particularly on issues on children’s education, family economic status, and family health being. The method used is a mixed quantitative and qualitative research method which includes a household survey (605 families), interviews with left-behind family members (30), telephone interviews with female migrant workers (30), and an online survey of migrant workers (2828). The research found that they faced difficulties managing children's education and social life during the lockdown in the social impact. In terms of economic, the cost of economic hardship suffered by both female migrants and their left-behind husbands and families, such as pay cuts, delayed payment of wages, non-payment of wages during illness, job losses, working hour extension, and some barriers on sending remittances that caused a problem for receiving left behind families. The impact in health aspect is more likely to address access to health insurance and mental health issues because of the increasing of family concerns and work-related stress. The result showed that gender issue has existed in regulating the role of Indonesian women who work abroad and men who are left behind. However, with the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic, it remains perpetuated that women and men determine particular attention according to their gender attributes.