WASHINGTON: A new IMF study confirms what many women already knew: mothers shouldered much of the pain and suffered an outsized economic impact from the Covid-19 pandemic. In “the world of work, women with young children have been among the biggest casualties of the economic lockdowns,” IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said in a blog post Friday.

The study by International Monetary Fund economists, which looked at the experiences of mothers in the United States, Britain and Spain, showed why it is “crucial” to provide added support to mothers, Georgieva said. That includes prioritizing reopening schools and providing monetary support for immediate needs and for retraining after some jobs disappeared, she said.

The report found that among all workers in the United States, women were affected more than men, while in Britain, it was the other way around, and in Spain, men and women shared similar levels of pain, she said.