Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown unequally impacted women and racial minorities working in Canadas services sector.<span style=font-size: 10px;> Employment is an important social determinant of health that influences ones income, housing, stress, and health.Little, however, is understood about how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced women's employment and health.This proposed research will use a qualitative research design and feminist political economy framework to examine how political and economic structures shape womens employment and health.In-depth interviews will be carried out with three racialized and three non-racialized women working in Canada. Participants with rich insight and personal experience will be recruited purposefully.The selection criteria include: (1) women between the ages of 25 and 54 living in the Greater Toronto Area; (2) employed or recently unemployed in the services sector<span style=font-size: 12.8px;>between February 2020 and September 2021; and (3) speak and understand English. Consent is ongoing and participants will be informed at every stage of the research process of their right to continue or withdraw from the research.Pseudonyms will be used to protect the identity of the participants. Participants characteristics will be collected using a short survey and analyzed using a frequency distribution. Qualitative interview data will be collected and analyzed simultaneously.Interviews will be transcribed and independently coded by the research team. Emergent themes will be reviewed and compared to the original transcripts. This will ensure that the themes accurately reflect the data. The know and insight gained from this research will help inform future research and potential public policy responses to ensure an equitable pandemic recovery.