Despite its wide geographic spread, the COVID-19 pandemic has not affected everyone in the same way. The attempts of key decision-makers to limit the damage of COVID-19 involve each one of us, but the impacts of these choices are neither equally shared nor highly visible. As we have seen with the Ebola crisis in West Africa and other pandemics, attempts by key decision-makers to curtail the negative impacts of COVID-19 on public health and the economy, in fact, generate a multitude of unintended negative consequences for women and girls, and in most instances further exacerbate existing gender inequalities.
The challenges women face are complex and interrelated. For instance, a woman’s financial independence may be hindered by unequally distributed domestic burdens and low decision-making power at home. The lack of women in leadership positions can result in policies that perpetuate existing gender norms and inequities across entire nations. Listing these issues as isolated events does not do justice to the interconnectedness between them. However, being aware of the range of challenges that disproportionately affect women has helped our clients and partners think about their responses in a more gender-sensitive way.