A greater impact on women-COVID-19

A greater impact on women-COVID-19

Part of: GS-I- Social issue-Women (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST)

Introduction

Early signs are that SARS-CoV-2 poses a greater direct health risk to men, and particularly older men. But the pandemic is exposing and exploiting inequalities of all kinds, including gender inequality. In the long term, its impact on women’s health, rights and freedoms could harm us all.

Problems of women during lockdowns

• Women are already suffering the deadly impact of lockdowns and quarantines.
• The risk of violence towards women trapped with abusive partners has increased enormously.
• Recent weeks have seen an alarming global surge in domestic violence; the largest support organisation in the U.K. reported a 700% increase in calls.
• COVID-19 poses a threat to women’s livelihoods and increases their burden of work at home

Steps taken by government to protect women and girls

• More than 143 governments have committed to supporting women and girls at risk of violence during the pandemic.

• Every country can take action by moving services online, expanding domestic violence shelters and designating them as essential, and increasing support to front line organisations.
• The United Nations’ partnership with the European Union, the Spotlight Initiative, is working with governments in more than 25 countries on these and similar measures, and stands ready to expand its support.

But the threat to women’s rights and freedoms posed by COVID-19 goes far beyond physical violence. The deep economic downturn accompanying the pandemic is likely to have a distinctly female face.

Unfair, unequal treatment

• Women are disproportionately represented in poorly paid jobs without benefits, as domestic workers, casual labourers, street vendors, and in small-scale services like hairdressing.
• The International Labour Organization estimates that nearly 200 million jobs will be lost in the next three months alone – many of them in exactly these sectors.
• And just as they are losing their paid employment, many women face a huge increase in care work due to school closures, overwhelmed health systems, and the increased needs of older people.
• In some villages in Sierra Leone, school enrolment rates for teenage girls fell from 50% to 34% after the Ebola epidemic, with lifelong implications for their well-being and that of their communities and societies.
• Many men, too, are facing job losses and conflicting demands. But even at the best of times, women do three times as much domestic work as men. That means they are more likely to be called on to look after children if businesses open while schools remain closed, delaying their return to the paid labour force.
• Entrenched inequality also means that while women make up 70% of healthcare workers, they are vastly outnumbered by men in healthcare management.
• Women comprise just one in every 10 political leaders worldwide .

Way Ahead

• We need women at the table when decisions are taken on this pandemic, to prevent worst-case scenarios like a second spike in infections, labour shortages, and even social unrest.
• Women in insecure jobs urgently need basic social protections, from health insurance to paid sick leave, childcare, income protection and unemployment benefits.
• Measures to stimulate the economy, like cash transfers, credits, loans and bailouts, must be targeted at women – whether they are working full-time in the formal economy, as part-time or seasonal workers in the informal economy, or as entrepreneurs and business owners.

This pandemic is not only challenging global health systems, but our commitment to equality and human dignity. With women’s interests and rights front and centre, we can get through this pandemic faster, and build more equal and resilient communities and societies that benefit everyone.