A week since The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic and robust measures around the world attempt to contain its spread, the social impact of the Novel Coronavirus is hitting women hard.
Globally, women make up 70 percent of workers in the health and social sector, and they do three times as much unpaid care work at home as men.
“The majority of health workers are women and that puts them at the highest risk. Most of them are also parents and caregivers to family members. They continue to carry the burden of care, which is already disproportionally high in normal times. This puts women under considerable stress,” said UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Recent experience of other disease outbreaks, such as the Ebola and Zika, have shown that such outbreaks divert resources away from services that women need, even as their burden of care increases and their paid livelihoods suffer losses.
For instance, when health services are overstretched, women’s access to pre- and post-natal health care and contraceptives dwindle. There are rising concerns of this happening as a result of COVID-19.
When households are placed under strain and in contexts of family violence, as strategies for self-isolation and quarantine are employed, the risk of such violence tend to increase. Reports from some impacted communities are showing that COVID-19 is driving similar trends right now.
The evidence is also mounting that the economic impacts of COVID-19 will hit women harder, as more women work in low-paying, insecure and informal jobs. Disruptions, including movement restrictions, are likely to compromise women’s ability to make a living and meet their families’ basic needs, as was seen in the Ebola crisis.
“UN Women is working with partners to make sure the gender-differential impact of COVID-19 is taken into account in the response strategies at country, regional and global levels,” said Sarah E Hendriks, Director of Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division at UN Women.
In China, for instance, UN Women is focusing on economic recovery solutions to support small and medium businesses owned by women, to mitigate the negative economic impact of the outbreak. It has also supported outreach campaigns to promote women’s leadership and contributions in the COVID-19 response, reaching more than 32 million people.
As more countries and areas enact closure of schools and childcare facilities to contain the spread of COVID-19, women’s ability to engage in paid work faces extra barriers. Globally women continue to be paid 16 percent less than men on average, and the pay gap rises to 35 percent in some countries. In times of crisis like this, women often face the unfair and sometimes impossible choice of giving up paid work to care for children at home.
UN Women is working closely with WHO and other UN agencies and UN Country Teams to strengthen the coordinated response to the outbreak. It’s also leveraging existing networks of women-led organizations to advance women’s voice and decision-making in COVID-19 preparedness and response.
Original source: UN Women
Published on 18 March 2020
