Gender and Digital Platform Work During Turbulent Times

TL;DR

This paper discusses how digital platform work during crises offers flexible opportunities but also exacerbates gender inequalities, emphasizing the need for gender-responsive policies to promote resilience and equity.

Contribution

It highlights the gendered impacts of platform work during crises and calls for targeted policies and research to address inequalities in digital labour markets.

Findings

Women face increased constraints during crises, affecting their employment and earnings.

Platform work provides flexible opportunities but can reinforce existing inequalities.

Gender-responsive policies are needed to ensure equitable benefits from digital platform work.

Abstract

This commentary explores how the platform economy shapes labour market responses during times of crisis, with a focus on gendered experiences. Drawing on cases of economic crisis, natural disasters, and refugee displacement, it examines how digital labour platforms offer flexible work opportunities while also reinforcing existing inequalities. Women face distinct constraints (such as caregiving responsibilities, limited mobility, and economic insecurity) that hinder their employment opportunities and earnings potential. These constraints are more pronounced during crises, when access to stable income and safe working conditions becomes more difficult. While platform work can serve as a lifeline, it is not a guaranteed solution, and its benefits are unevenly distributed. The commentary calls for gender-responsive policies and new research to understand how digital infrastructures mediate labour experiences across different crisis contexts. Such research can inform inclusive strategies that promote resilience and equity in platform-based work, particularly for marginalized and displaced populations.