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GENDER EQUALITY IN THE WAKE OF COVID-19
Amany Yehia and Keira Lonergan. Members of WHIS Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Expert Group
HAS COVID-19 DERAILED GENDER EQUALITY GAINS? A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was first reported to the WHO Country Office in China on 31 December 2019. The outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020. On 11 February 2020, WHO announced a name for the new coronavirus disease: COVID-19.
DEIRDRE CARBERY Human Security & Gender Advisor & Chair of WHIS Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Expert Group VIEW CONTRIBUTOR’S BIO
COVID-19 does not discriminate—but people and social structures do discriminate. Measures to slow the spread of the virus continue to restrict people’s movements, keeping people at home and halting vital daily activities. More than 1 billion children and youth found themselves out of school over the past 18 months, resulting in learning deficits for students, particularly those from poor households. Around 94% of the world’s workers live in countries where some type of work closures occurred. A number of studies have highlighted the devastating macro-level impact of COVID-19 on women. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that women are more likely to work in harder-hit and higher risk sectors—such as healthcare, social and domestic work; and United Nations (UN) analysis finds that women (and girls) have borne the brunt of school closures in terms of increased unpaid work and reduced levels of education and that “gender-based violence is increasing exponentially.” While women and men make up an equal share of those infected with COVID-19, men are more likely to die from the disease. Biologically, this could be because females tend to have stronger immune responses. However, other factors may also be at play, including gender differences in behaviour that affects health, such as smoking. While women have a longer life expectancy than men, they spend less years living in good health.
