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Tips for linking social protection and gender-based violence prevention and response during COVID-19
With COVID-19 throwing a spotlight on both social protection and gender-based violence, experts from the FCDO- and GIZ-funded SPACE initiative – Lara Quarterman and Amber Peterman – explore some of the ways these topics intersect. This blog will set out core considerations for programming that integrate social protection with violence prevention or response, and highlight the importance […]
COVID-19: Scientific advances and their impact on women’s health
Erica N. Rosser, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The Washington University Center for Women’s Infectious Disease Research and the Global Health Center joined forces to organize an important and opportune virtual event – The COVID-19: Scientific Advances and its Impact on Women’s Health Symposium. Dean of the Washington University School of Medicine David Perlmutter, opened […]
Where are the women in the COVID-19 pandemic?
Clare Wenham pointed out there were various structures of governance that had no mention of woman specific or gender sensitive inclusion in. Some of these included: The International Health Regulations (2005), Joint External Evaluation (JEE), Global Health Security Agenda (and country action packages), Biological Weapons Convention, WHO research and Development Blueprint, United States Government Global Health Security Strategy among others.
It is important to remember that the management of COVID-19 also needs to consider the affected and not just the infected. Men may be at higher risk of infection with COVID-19 but women are the most affected and have borne the worst brunt. Health systems are highly gendered and so are many industries as has been revealed by COVID-19.
What do we know about women and COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries from the peer-reviewed literature?
By Anita Raj, Nabamallika Dehingia, Anvita Dixit and Lotus McDougal The literature on COVID-19 is shockingly vast when you consider that most nations have been contending with the impact from the virus for only about six months at most. Based on this literature, there are a few recognized cross-national findings with regard to risk and severity […]
Why decision-making structures in the COVID-19 response matter to gender equality
By Boel McAteer, COVID-19 Response Governance Mapping Initiative Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and journalists have drawn attention the gendered impacts of many of the measures put in place to combat its spread. To mention a few examples, lockdown policies have caused a worldwide increase of domestic violence, and school closures and […]
Women’s leadership in the COVID-19 response
By Roopa Dhatt, Joannie Bewa, Jennifer Martin and Ann Keeling, Women in Global Health COVID-19 knows no borders and it does not discriminate. Societies, however, do discriminate and the impact of the virus is increasing inequalities globally. The recovery from this pandemic will take years and for many, a lifetime. COVID-19 has thrust global health […]
Gender and COVID-19 in Brazil: Social impacts on women’s lives
Camila Pimentel and Denise Pimenta The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the idea that in times of social and economic disruption, women (and girls) are the most affected. Sanitary emergencies impact all areas of life, from health to economy, and the COVID-19 pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities. Therefore, it is necessary to consider gender as an […]
Gender norms, intersectionality and a COVID-19 ‘global reset’
By Caroline Harper The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare not only inequalities between and within countries, but the fragility of rights which many assume cannot be reversed. Gender norms, which reflect and mirror progress in gendered human rights, have regressed in many settings. Women without adequate childcare are juggling domestic work with full time jobs, […]
Understanding the gendered dimensions of COVID-19
By Lynda Keeru Many of us have greatly been affected by COVID-19-from loss of jobs, closure of schools, travel bans, movement restriction and much more. However, some groups of people have been more affected other than others, and the more vulnerable in the community, societies and groups have borne the greatest brunt. The disease has […]
Post-COVID recovery should boost women’s workforce participation: Learning from India
By Jashodhara Dasgupta As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, it is becoming abundantly clear that future preparations for health resilience need serious rethinking. The model many countries have followed thus far relied upon lowered investments in social protection and public health services, banking heavily on unpaid and underpaid care work […]
How do you quarantine at home, when you don’t have a home? Migrant domestic workers and Hong Kong’s COVID-19 response
By Nimisha Vandan and Karen Grépin Since March 19, 2020 Hong Kong has imposed strict mandatory quarantine measures for everyone entering into the region in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. People arriving from a list of high prevalence countries (e.g. Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and South Africa) are required to quarantine in a […]
The COVID-19 elephant and the blind men of race, place and gender
By Derek M. Griffith, Jennifer M. Ellison and Andrea R. Semlow In the parable of The Blind Men and the Elephant, the men used their limited perception of the elephant to do their best to understand what the elephant was. Each was wrong because they failed to be able to perceive the totality of the […]
Women have been largely ignored in the COVID-19 response. This must change
By Clare Wenham Every Thursday the UK is encouraged to ‘clap for carers’ – who are far more likely to be women. Yet the government has not considered how measures such as furlough and school closures affect women disproportionately, and there is an absence of female representation at the top of government and in the […]
COVID-19 and men’s health: Time for action
By Peter Baker Men’s excess burden of mortality from COVID-19 seems clear. In the USA, the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker reported that, by 6 July, 54% of all deaths were male. In some countries, including The Netherlands, Denmark, Dominican Republic and Romania, around twice as many men as women have died. Globally, the WHO has […]
Men in Kitchens and the (re) configurations of masculinity in domestic spaces during Covid-19 Lockdown in Uganda
By Amon Ashaba Mwiine Emerging public discourses around the COVID-19 crisis have characterised this pandemic as unprecedented and disruptive. How exactly do such global disruptions of unprecedented nature affect men and masculinities? What kind of narratives around men and masculinities did Corona Virus and its associated preventive measures set off? What do such narratives teach […]
Gender and COVID-19 project
By Erica N. Rosser We are a multidisciplinary group of academics from across the globe collaborating to shine light on the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team is committed to generating and sharing evidence, analysis, and tools to inform public health policies and government responses to COVID-19. Learn more about our team. What […]
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Announcement: Working Group Coordinator for the Gender and Public Health Emergencies Working Group
We are excited to announce an opportunity to join the Gender and Public Health Emergencies Working Group (formally the Gender and COVID-19 Working Group) as a Working Group Coordinator. This role will support the ongoing success of the Working Group by planning meetings, building relationships with members, managing the list-serve, overseeing awards, and seeking additional […]
Germany’s COVID-19 response: On the gendered impact of invisibility in global crises
“Prevent, detect, contain and treat”: following the pillars of its pandemic preparedness and response framework, Germany’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has been praised for its low fatality rate. However, the conventional prioritization of immediate biomedical needs as the primary guiding principle in outbreak management arguably came at a cost for other systemic issues. Numerous groups paid […]
Ensuring Monkeypox Vaccine Access for Sex Workers
By Alice Murage The global monkeypox virus outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization in July 2022 when cases were reported in over 70 countries and territories. In Canada, and many similar countries, the government responded by initiating a vaccination campaign targeting those identifying as gay or […]
Using Intersectionality for Gender-Responsive Pandemic Measures
For many people across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic presented various challenges— movement was restricted, many businesses were shuttered, and learning was temporarily halted. The health systems in some regions, particularly those in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), were tested; understaffing, low budgets, and poor infrastructure were common features before being compelled to reroute, reorganise […]
Why are women more susceptible to long COVID?
Long COVID has negatively impacted over 100 million people worldwide with residual symptoms that could persist many months or potentially a lifetime after resolution of the acute infection. After a year of devastating losses from COVID-19 infection, the beginning of 2021 offered hope with vaccine distribution. However, with progression of the pandemic into 2022, discussions […]
Racism, rights and community engagement: Care, carers, caring in pandemic times
Shirin M Rai, Shahnaz Akhter and Jayanthi Lingham We have been working on issues related to care, caring and carers during COVID-19, as part of the CoPower: Consortium on Practices of Well-being and Resilience in BAME Families and Communities, funded by UKRI. Shirin Rai led the research team. Dr Shahnaz Akhter and Dr Jayanthi Lingham […]
Action is required
Gender and COVID-19 Working Group Call to Action was birthed in a collaborative process. Subsequently, organizers of the conference organized a webinar, ‘A Call to Action: Gender and COVID-19 Working Group’ to discuss it with a wider group of people. The speakers of the webinar focused on the actions needed to implement change in different […]
Food Insecurity, Hunger, Gender and COVID-19
Major disruptions to global economic, social and food systems have increased food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic and put at risk the health and wellbeing of millions of people around the world. The notable gender gap in food insecurity and hunger has widened during the pandemic – globally, and in every region worldwide, food insecurity prevalence is higher among […]
Re-emphasizing the gendered impacts of COVID-19: A round-up of evidence from seven countries
In the past two years, a vast amount of research and advocacy efforts have highlighted the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nabamallika Dehingia, Erin Oakley, Amanda P. Miller, Arjun Neupane, Anamika Priyadarshini , Anita Raj, Namratha Rao and Jennifer Wagman blog on behalf of EMERGE. EMERGE is an initiative focused on building the quality […]
