Addressing the challenges and constraints of social protection policies for Peruvian women domestic workers

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control it have threatened livelihoods, introduced new workplace risks and made unstable work relationships even more precarious, especially for women. Using a community-based participatory action research approach, this project will work with women domestic workers'Äô unions to examine the working conditions and access to healthcare of women domestic workers in three cities of Peru (Lima, La Libertad and Piura). More specifically, it will assess and compare the health and working conditions of women domestic workers before and during the pandemic and identify the barriers that affect their access to social protection policies in the formal and informal economies. The goals are to co-design context-adapted recommendations to improve access to health services and social protection among women domestic workers; develop recommendations to respond to the specific needs and contexts of certain groups (by age, ethnic/race identification, migration status); and to strengthen multidisciplinary research team capacities, including early career researchers and women scientists. This project is funded under Women'Äôs health and economic empowerment for a COVID-19 Recovery that is Inclusive, Sustainable and Equitable (Women RISE), an initiative of IDRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Its aim is to support global action-oriented, gender-transformative research by teams of researchers from low- and middle-income countries and Canada.