Why working-class women will be group worst affected by Tier 3 lockdown

Women are also overrepresented in low-paid precarious sectors such as care, retail and hospitality, writes Maya Oppenheim

Almost half of working-class women were found to have done no hours of work in April during the height of the pandemic compared to just one in five women working professional or managerial roles (Getty Images)

While the prospect of a second wave of coronavirus looms ever larger and more parts of the UK come under new lockdown restrictions, questions linger about who will be most affected by the rules.

Research has shown working-class women were hardest hit by the first lockdown in spring, and researchers predict they will again bear the brunt of a Tier 3 lockdown — the strictest category of the government's new three-tier system for localised lockdown rules.

A new study by the University of Warwick and the University of Nottingham has raised concerns that many working-class areas of Northern England are included in the top tier of restrictions, as researchers warned no lessons have been learned from the disproportionate impact the first Covid-19 lockdown had on working-class women.