COVID’s Impact on Gender Equality

Written By Kali Taylor

Overview

Gender Equality is Sustainable Development Goal #5 and is comprised of 6 targets focused on empowering all women and girls:

  • End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere

  • Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation

  • Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation

  • Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

  • Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life

  • Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences

Before 2020, there were promising improvements on gender equality such as lower rates of early marriage and more women in leadership positions both politically and in business, unfortunately, the effects of the pandemic on women have been multifaceted and far-reaching, and have set back a number of aspects of gender equality.

Domestic Violence Surge

We saw a tragic surge in domestic violence with confinement. Many women around the world were forced to stay in very close proximity with their abusers in a time of heightened stress. This led to a material increase in violence against women and children, so much so that the UN referred to this problem as a “shadow pandemic.”

While it is impossible to know exactly how large the increase was because so much domestic violence goes unreported, it is estimated to be an increase of approximately 20%, up to 30% in some countries (UN Stats). Some countries have documented 5 times the numbers of calls to helplines during lockdowns. (UN Women).

Paid and Unpaid Work

  • PAID. According to UN stats, women make up 70% of health and social workers globally.  This means that women are disproportionately fighting on the front lines against COVID. (UN Stats) In addition, across the globe, women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs, are more likely to be employed in the informal sector (UN Women) and therefore are more vulnerable to layoffs and mass downturns in economic activity.

  • UNPAID.  Before the pandemic women already spent 3 times as many hours on unpaid care work than men. (UN Stats) With children needing to be home-schooled, more time spent in the home and potentially even sick family members to aid, the increase in domestic and care work has fallen on both men and women but trends indicate that a disproportionate amount of that burden fell on women which in turn can affect their mental health and ability to continue and/or advance in the workforce, which could have long term implications for the number of women we see in senior leadership roles in the future.

  • LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL. In 2019, women made up half of the world’s working-age population and represented 39% of the world’s workers, but only 28% of managerial positions (UN Stats). The number of women in managerial positions was on an upward trajectory before 2020 and it remains to be seen what affect the pandemic will have on that progress

Education Disruption and Poverty Cycle Traps

The pandemic has caused disruption in education systems and this will inevitably have long term implications this for the futures of many girls, particularly in developing countries. When young girls do not receive education it can entrap them in a system of poverty and inequality. In some parts of the world, this also makes them more vulnerable to child marriage or decreases their ability to make decisions over their own sexual and reproductive health. In fact, a report by Save the Children in October 2020 found that up to 2.5 million more girls around the world are at risk of marriage in the next 5 years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, due both to prolonged school closures and the increasing poverty leading families to consider child marriage as an option for poverty alleviation.

Solutions

It is important to talk about the these links between gender and COVID because being transparent about these issues will help us to institute gender-sensitive responses to COVID. Here are some examples of what a gender-sensitive response can look like:

  • Vaccine development that ensures gender balance in clinical trials to improve efficacy in both genders.

  • Using stimulus dollars to fund affordable childcare services and systems, which stimulates employment of women (who make up a disproportionate number of childcare workers) and helps women to have more options for balancing work and childcare decisions.

  • Integrating prevention and response to violence against women and girls into COVID-19 response plans.

  • Putting women in decision-making positions when planning COVID response and recovery strategies.

Keep Learning

Here are a few great resources for further reading and learning:

How to Support?

With every video, I provide links to related organizations that you may or may not choose to support with your pocketbook.

  • UN Women - Shadow Pandemic campaign - Donate

  • PLAN International - work focused mostly on supporting girls in developing countries - Donate

  • MSI Reproductive Choices - provides reproductive services and advocates for choice - Donate

  • Girls Not Brides - an umbrella group of organizations dedicated to ending child marriage - Donate

  • Any local women’s shelters

Kali Taylor
Previous

The US is back in Paris Climate Agreement!
Next

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Explained