Practical guides for adolesecents and young people, and their parents and caregivers to see how gender can affect our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frontline AIDS. (2020). COVID-19 and gender: A guide for adolesecents and young people.
Practical guides for adolesecents and young people, and their parents and caregivers to see how gender can affect our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frontline AIDS. (2020). COVID-19 and gender: A guide for adolesecents and young people.
The pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns implemented by governments across the world had severe economic and social repercussions. World over, women are grappling with a triple burden of loss in incomes, increased care and domestic work and an escalation of domestic violence (1). COVID-19 has disproportionately affected women workers in the informal economy (2).The International Labour Organisation (3)reports that 1.3 billion people work informally in Asia and the Pacific, which constitutes 65% of the world’s informal employment. 7 in 10 workers in developing Asia are in the informal economy. Over 92% and 84.5% of women in low-and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), are in informal employment.
In South Asia, countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal announced lockdowns that restricted public transportation services. The nature of public transportation permitted during the lockdown differed by state and country. For example, while Kabul, Afghanistan announced a lock down, they permitted public transport vehicles carrying less than four passengers (4). In India, all modes of transport-road, rail and air were suspended except for the transportation of essential goods. Post lockdown as restrictions eased, public transport resumed with curtailed services, reduced passenger capacity to encourage physical distancing and fare increases in private buses and paratransit.
Mobility is vital for the economic recovery of resource poor women (RPW) workers, as they are dependent on public transport, paratransit, and walking. The loss in incomes due to the pandemic, need to sustain their households has compelled RPW to resume work. However, there is limited awareness of the impacts of COVID-19 on women’s mobility amongst decision makersand transport policy influencers in LMICs. The impact of modified bus operations, increased fares on RPW’s mobility and access are not understood. Similarly, digitalisation of public transport has not acknowledged the gender divide in the access to ICT technology.
Our research aims to fills this gap. We provide evidence and fast track knowledge uptake to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on RPW’s mobility, inform policy guidance and responses on addressing gender equity in public transport. The research includes a deep dive in Delhi (India), with learnings for LMICs in South Asia…
Shah, S., Rajiv, R., & Lokre, A. (2021). Moving towards gender equitable public transport operations in a post COVID-19 world. The Urban Catalysts.
The economic downturn precipitated by Covid-19 is different from that caused by previous shocks. It is likely to have a particularly harsh impact on hospitality, retail, and care sectors that are female-dominated and dominated by Black and minority ethnic workers. At the same time, services that enable women, and especially disabled women’s, labour market participation, including nurseries, schools, and social care, will need to operate differently to avoid exacerbating the pandemic.
The UK policy response to the 2008 financial crash was austerity. This turned a recession that began with contraction in male-dominated sectors like construction into a shredding of the social safety net. Of the cumulative social security cuts driven by austerity between 2010 and 2022, 59% will have come from women’s purses. Women bear around 61% of the total annual ‘fiscal consolidation’ burden as a result of UK tax and benefit changes, with Black and minority ethnic women hit the hardest.
Austerity is the backdrop to the Covid-19 recession. Its depletion of public services go some way to explaining the sluggish response of the UK to managing the pandemic itself, as well as the lack of capacity within care infrastructure.
The features of the Covid-19 economic crisis mean that the traditional approach to stimulus will work even less well than usual. We do not need to spend on a narrowly defined set of infrastructure projects that will create ‘jobs for the boys’. We need to invest money in creating demand for goods and services by spending on health, childcare, and social care services.
If Scotland’s traditional ways of thinking about the economy won’t work then we need to adopt some new approaches. The following principles develop Scotland’s existing commitment to inclusive growth. They are a set of ideas, challenges, and calls that are rooted in evidence. They describe features of an economy that works for women as well as men. They put care and solidarity at its heart. They will create better jobs, better decision-making, and a more adequate standard of living for us all…
ENGENDER, & Close the Gap. (2020). Gender and Economic Recovery.
The division of work between women and men is, and has long been, profoundly gendered. Women’s access to paid work, leisure time and power remains heavily constrained by traditional social roles as carers and mothers even as they have increasingly entered and remained in the labour market.
The response to Covid-19 has seen a significant displacement of care and childcare from services to households throughout lockdown. Despite descriptions of crashing productivity in the ‘real economy,’ women are busier than ever. Time-use data, survey data, and women’s own accounts all chart an increase in home-schooling, childcare, care for disabled and older people, and other unpaid work predominantly done by women such as housework and household management.
The only policy response to this increase in unpaid work has been an ill-fitting ‘furlough’ scheme, which initially did not include any provision for employers to secure wage replacement for those doing caring roles. Although the UK Government’s Job Retention Scheme has now been expanded to include furlough for those providing childcare or care full-time, this is not available on a part-time basis. Women who are in paid work are consequently juggling their employment and these larger care roles, with significant consequences for their wellbeing and mental health…
ENGENDER. (2020). Gender and unpaid work: The impact of COVID-19 on women’s caring roles.
The measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in gender-based violence around the world. As governments moved to limit, suspend, or digitize vital victim support services, civil society organizations – and in particular grassroots legal empowerment groups- found new ways of helping women to seek safety and justice.
This report examines institutional and civil society responses to gender-based violence (GBV) during the pandemic, in particular domestic violence (DV)and intimate partner violence (IPV). It investigates the role of legal empowerment groups in filling justice gaps, reducing violence, improving service provision, and demanding accountability.
This publication is the result of a participatory research initiative organized jointly by The Legal Empowerment Network, convened by Namati, and Themis – Gender, Justice and Human Rights (Brazil). The research was co-led and implemented by lead members of the network: the Association for the Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women – ESE (North Macedonia), the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers – FIDA(Uganda), and the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)…
Legal Empowerment Network, THEMIS – Gender, Justice and Human Rights, Association for the Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women (ESE), Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), & FIDA Uganda. (2021). Gender Justice During and Beyond the COVID-19 Crisis: Institutional Responses to Gender-based Violence and the Role of Legal Empowerment Groups.
Studies around the world are revealing differential and disproportionate socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women arising from the compounding effects of many complex factors. To contribute to the discourse and influence key decision-making, FP Analytics has synthesized evidence of the devastating gendered effects of the pandemic and current government responses, and provides recommendations for rights-based policies, interventions, and investments underpinned by rigorous gender analysis…
FP Analytics. (2021). Elevating Gender Equality in COVID-19 Economic Recovery: An evidence synthesis and call for policy action.
The Generation Equality Forum in Paris on 30 June-2 July 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action on Women. The 1995 event was a milestone for advancing women’s rights,1 but it is disheartening that still not one country can claim to have achieved gender equality.
By 2045 most global leaders will be too young to remember the Beijing declaration, but the global community will have failed if gender inequality is still widespread. In this future we expect deaths from childbirth—particularly among women in the poorest households and countries—to be rare events. HIV and other sexually transmissible infections among young women and girls should have fallen drastically. We expect women and girls of reproductive age to have full control over their own reproductive decisions and nearly all to have their need for modern contraception met. Early deaths and severe disability attributable to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and poor mental health should have declined. In most countries, women and girls will be living safe, violence-free lives. We expect good progress in the development of green technologies, and that outbreaks of infectious diseases such as covid-19 will be quickly contained because the world will be better prepared…
Amin, A., Remme, M., Allotey, P., & Askew, I. (2021). Gender equality by 2045: reimagining a healthier future for women and girls. BMJ.
As COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out across the globe, many have wondered whether pregnant and lactating people can or should be vaccinated as part of broader immunization efforts. Countries have taken a variety of positions – ranging from highly restrictive policies that bar access to vaccines based on pregnancy or lactation status to widely permissive positions in which all pregnant or lactating people can receive vaccine, and in some cases, are recommended and encouraged to do so.
The COVID-19 Maternal Immunization Tracker (COMIT) provides a global snapshot of public health policies that influence access to COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant and lactating people. Through maps, tables, and country profiles, COMIT provides regularly updated information on country policies and the recommendations of professional medical societies as they respond to the dynamic state of the pandemic and emerging evidence…
Berman Institute of Bioethics & Center for Immunization Research, Johns Hopkins University. (2021). Covid-19 Maternal Immunization Tracker (COMIT).
This paper analyses the potential contribution of social protection to a gender-transformative economic recovery over the medium term, defined as running from the present to the end of 2022. It builds on the existing Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 Expert (SPACE) advice publication; SPACE Social Protection in the COVID-19 Recovery: Opportunities and Challenges. Over the next two years (2021-2), economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis will be a key focus for governments and international organisations. Although taking place under challenging circumstances, including that of the climate crisis, this moment presents an important opportunity to design economic recovery plans that take into consideration the specific impacts of the crisis on women and put in place measures to support women in re-establishing economic security. This piece is intended as a tool for evidence-based, inclusive policy responses, and to equip gender equality and social protection actors to better advocate for a gender-transformative recovery.
Alfers, L., Holmes, R., McCrum, C., & Quarterman, L. (2021). Gender and Social Protection in the COVID-19 Economic Recovery: Opportunities and Challenges. Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 Expert Advice Service (SPACE), DAI Global UK Ltd.
Key Messages:
Holmes, R., & Hunt, A. (2021). Have social protection responses to Covid-19 undermined or supported gender equality? Emerging lessons from a gender perspective. ODI.