Paper short abstract:

Frontline healthcare workers faced increasing challenges due to the multiple waves of COVID-19 in Lahore, Pakistan. My paper explores the experiences of the frontline healthcare workers throughout the pandemic. Further, I unpack how their experiences were stratified along gender lines.

Paper long abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity of a well-functioning healthcare workforce. However, in Pakistan, poor governance, gender inequality, and a weak healthcare system continue to prevail and worsen the consequences of the pandemic on the lives of healthcare workers. Using a qualitative approach and gendered lens, I interviewed 80 frontline healthcare professionals, mainly doctors and nurses, in both public and private hospitals in Lahore to shed light on their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. My findings reveal that it became a lot more challenging for female healthcare workers to balance domestic and work-life amid the pandemic compared to their male counterparts and that there is a dearth of policies exclusively taking into account female healthcare workers' issues and contexts. Both male and female healthcare workers reported suffering from extreme stress and mental fatigue due to long working hours and exposure to COVID-19. They highlighted the need for timely provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), improvement in staff safety and security, and an immediate increase in salaries. This research aims to assist representatives of the state and healthcare system in Pakistan to develop effective and inclusive COVID-19 policy interventions, containment measures, and gender-transformative emergency responses.