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GENDER EQUALITY IN THE WAKE OF COVID-19
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.
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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.
Women and girls have been especially impacted by the economic and social fallout of the pandemic. Women are losing their livelihoods faster because they are more exposed to hard-hit economic sectors. According to the analysis commissioned by UN Women and UNDP, this year, around 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day — including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19. The impacts are not just economic. The shift of funds to pandemic response is hampering women’s access to sexual and reproductive health. Violence against women reports have increased around the world, as widespread stay-at home orders force women to shelter in place with their abusers, often with tragic consequences. More people at home also means that the burden of unpaid care and domestic work has increased for women and girls, literally driving some to the breaking point.
An examination of 115 COVID-19 decision-making and expert task forces across 87 countries found that in 85% the majority of members are men. COVID-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in our social, political and economic systems. It is forcing a shift in priorities and funding across public and private sectors, with far-reaching effects on the well-being of women and girls. Women must be the architects as well as the beneficiaries of efforts to build back stronger and better in response to these highly visible fault lines.
Crisis can exacerbate existing inequalities within a community power structure, and lead to an increase in sexual and gender-based violence. Disasters and crises increase women’s vulnerabilities and susceptibility to exploitation and violence for a variety of reasons including poverty, gender roles, and the burden of caretaking responsibilities. These vulnerabilities are supported by a culture and society that in the best of times witness the sexual assault of girls and women by men at disproportionately high rates. During times of disaster, the stress, fear and sense of helplessness associated with emergency tend to increase risk factors for perpetration of violence against women.
COVID-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in our social, political and economic systems. It is forcing a shift in priorities and funding across public and private sectors, with far-reaching effects on the well-being of women and girls. Women must be the architects as well as the beneficiaries of efforts to build back stronger and better in response to these highly visible fault lines.
Deirdre Carbery, Human Security & Gender Advisor & Chair of WHIS Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Expert Group
