JHSS (Journal of Humanities and Social Studies) Volume 06, Number 01, March 2022, Page 109-114 https://journal.unpak.ac.id/index.php/jhss e-ISSN: 2598-120X; p-ISSN: 2598-117X - 109 - EFFECT OF EDUCATION LEVEL, GENDER ROLE, AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON MSME INCOME IN THE ERA OF COVID-19 (CASE STUDY ON FOOD MSMES IN BANDUNG CITY) Tuti Anggraeni ab*) , Ratih Hurriyati a) , Puspo Dewi Dirgantari a) , Dodi Sukmayana b) a) Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia b) Universitas Winaya Mukti, Bandung, Indonesia *) Corresponding Author: tutianggraeni01@upi.edu Article history: received 06 January 2022; revised 29 January 2021; accepted 24 February 2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.33751/jhss.v6i1.5376 Abstract. The specific purpose of this study is to provide an overview to the food sector SMEs in the city of Bandung, that the influence of education level, gender roles, and information technology has a significant influence on their income. This study used 59 samples of food sector MSME business actors in the Bandung City area. The sampling technique chosen in this study was incidental sampling technique and data collection using questionnaires distributed to respondents, namely MSME owners. The data analysis technique used in this research is multiple linear regression. The results showed that there was an influence of education level, gender roles, and information technology on the income of MSME actors in the food sector in the city of Bandung. Hopefully this research can provide input to the food sector MSME administrators in the Bandung Raya area, especially the food sector MSME actors to continue to improve the quality of education both through formal and non-formal education, increase the existence of gender roles by not leaving their nature as women, and continue to upgrade information technology. which is useful for marketing the results of his business. Because based on research conducted by researchers, these three variables can increase the income of MSME actors. Keywords: education level; gender roles; information technology; income I. INTRODUCTION The city of Bandung is one of the municipalities that is developing in the MSME program. Therefore, local governments focus on developing MSMEs managed by the Ministry of Cooperatives by providing training, providing business assistance and even helping with some capital for MSMEs that have just opened a business. However, in reality, not all MSMEs in Bandung have high productivity. There are many MSMEs with low productivity. The low productivity of MSMEs can be seen from the low income, the number of goods production has not increased and the limited marketing area for MSME finished products. This situation is caused by internal problems faced by MSMEs, namely: the low quality of human resources, weak entrepreneurship of MSME owners, and limited MSME access to capital, information, technology and markets, as well as other production factors. The Department of Cooperatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (KUMKM) noted that there was a 3.8% growth in MSMEs in Bandung in the last six years. Head of Section for Empowerment and Development of Micro Enterprises and Facilitation of the Bandung City KUMKM Office, Nuri Nuraeni, said the number of micro enterprises based on data from the Bandung City BPS data was 111,627 or 75% of the total number of MSME groups of 147,073. The number of assisted MSMEs registered with the KUMKM Service is 6,409. The existence of the Covid-19 pandemic has an impact on all countries in the world, not a few countries are experiencing a recession because of negative growth. The global economy is contracting which results in high uncertainty. In Indonesia, GDP growth in the second quarter of 2020 contracted by 5.32% compared to the second quarter of 2019 (year-on-year), when compared to the first quarter of 2020 (quarter-to-quarter) the Indonesian economy contracted by 4.19% (BPS , August 2020). According to the Ministry of Cooperative SMEs, as of early June 2020, the most affected SMEs were culinary SMEs. This is of course also experienced by Food SMEs in the city of Bandung. The existence of prohibitions and restrictions on selling by the Bandung City Government, the existence of social distancing and the implementation of work from home during the initial three to four months of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in people's purchasing power dropping and having an impact on the financial income of Food SMEs. Nuri explained the obstacles faced by her party during the Covid-19 pandemic which had lasted for the past year. Starting from the lack of capital, to the lack of product innovation. “The lack of capital is a common problem for micro-enterprises. Inefficient financial management is also one of the obstacles that micro-enterprises are difficult to develop. The lack of product innovation, not maximizing online marketing, not having a permit, is one of the causes of the decline in turnover, especially during the current pandemic," he said to Jabar Ekspres, Wednesday (24/3). Seeing these obstacles, the education level factor plays an important role, in the city of Bandung itself based on statistical data in 2020 the owners of MSMEs were 61.02% with an educational background below S1. This is due to the lack of skills, experience and knowledge of MSME owners.