Key Messages:

• The impacts of the Covid-19 crisis have exacerbated gender inequalities. The crisis has increased women’s care responsibilities, disproportionately affected women’s jobs and livelihoods, and increased the risk of violence against women and girls.
• Social protection has been a key policy response to the crisis, but the extent to which these measures have recognised and addressed the gendered impacts of the crisis remains far from adequate.
• Without an explicit gender-informed approach, programme choices may further exacerbate gender inequalities, including risking women’s own entitlement to social protection through restrictive eligibility criteria, and exploiting and exacerbating women’s unpaid work.

Holmes, R., & Hunt, A. (2021). Have social protection responses to Covid-19 undermined or supported gender equality? Emerging lessons from a gender perspective. ODI.