Women are more likely to be concerned over the Coronavirus than men, a new poll from Reuters/Ipsos has found.
The poll was conducted from March 18-24 and surveyed 4,500 American adults.
54% of women responded they were “very concerned” regarding COVID-19 as opposed to just 45% of men. Other questions include hand-washing frequency, contact with others, avoiding public spaces and more.
Mieke Beth Thomeer, a sociology professor at the University of Alabama, argues women are generally more responsible for “kinkeeping," referring to taking care of family members.
“They are more likely to call their grandmother at the nursing home or have to figure out what store to go to to find toilet paper, or figure out future meals based only on what’s currently in the pantry,” Thomeer said.
“Then added to this, is that women do more childcare to begin with, and so the closing of schools is more impactful – and more likely alarming – for women.”
To support this, 58% of women supported closing all public schools, compared with 52% of men.
25% of men say they “strongly agree” people are “unnecessarily panicking." Only 18% of women say the same.
As of Saturday, there are 663,741 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
Check out the full poll results from Reuters here.
[Via]