Gender norms and the coronavirus

The impacts of crises are never gender-neutral, and Covid-19 is no exception. This publication summarises data, research, and policy work by UN Women’s Policy and Programme Division on the pandemic’s impact on women and girls, including the impact on extreme poverty, employment, health, unpaid care, and violence against women and girls. The publication also brings into focus the paucity of gender data and calls for greater investment and prioritisation of data on the gendered effects of the crisis.

This multi-blog by experts from ODI looks at gender and Covid-19 in relation to leadership, violence, economic empowerment, education, health, social protection, youth, data and humanitarian contexts.

Published by: ODI

Emerging public discourses around the Covid-19 crisis have characterised this pandemic as unprecedented and disruptive. This blog asks the question 'how exactly do such global disruptions of unprecedented nature affect men and masculinities?'

Published by: Gender and Covid-19

Article looking at how quibbles over who does the housework during the recent coronavirus lockdown have brought the gender politics of India's homes into the open.

Published by: BBC News

This article explores the warning coming from campaign groups that women across Europe risk being pushed back into traditional roles.

Published by: The Guardian

This article describes the serious plight of India’s domestic workers, laid off with no resources and often little family support, during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Published by: News 18 - India

This article discusses potential post-pandemic positive changes in domestic labour. There are suggestions that gender equity might be one of the winners from this crisis but there are also suggestions of the opposite – that existing inequalities between genders will be reinforced by the privations of the Coronavirus crisis, and women will be the bigger losers from the economic fallout.

Published by: The Sydney Morning Herald

Short article about the physical and social differences between genders on the impacts of Covid-19.

Published by: The Lancet

With many schools closed as a result of the pandemic and girls' education being particularly badly affect, this article looks at the long-term affect this is projected to have on rates of child marriage with the UN warning it could lead to 13 million more child brides in the next decade.

Published by: The Guardian

In this final blog of the "Diaries from the frontline" series, the authors examine how particularly vulnerable population groups are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This blog looks at refugee children in Lebanon, girls in Pakistan faced with school closures and what this will mean for their education and life opportunities, and similarly girls in India losing out on their education.

Published in: Centre for Global Development

This article outlines the constraints rural indigenous children, particularly girls, face in accessing learning through Mexico’s Aprende en la Casa (Learn at Home) programme.

Published by: Brookings

This post summarises the potentially gender-differentiated effects of Covid-19 on young people’s educational opportunities and outcomes. It also flags a survey seeking responses from front-line service providers on the specific risks to girls of school closures.

Published by: Centre for Global Development

This article shows how one of the most commonly adopted and recommended ways of continuing education during periods of school closure is skewed in favour of better off groups, with gender inequalities in some contexts.

Published by: UKFIET

This article explores links between ‘stay-at-home’ policies in Peru and the incidence rate of reported intimate partner violence (IPV) measured through phone calls to the main Peruvian help line. Peru was one of the earliest coronavirus lockdowns in Latin American and the lockdown. Understanding whether policies that seek to control a major pandemic lead to unintended negative consequences for women’s safety is an important policy question. This is even more salient for developing countries, such as Peru, where the slow but consistent reductions in violence over the past ten years could be quickly reversed by the responses to Covid-19. Results show the incidence rate of the calls increased by 48% between April and July 2020. These outcomes show an urgent need to identify policies that help mitigate the unintended effects of stay at home orders to combat Covid-19.

Published by: World Development

This piece notes that prior to the coronavirus outbreak, gender and domestic violence as well as feminicide rates were already on the rise in Mexico, in part due to harmful gender norms that lead to physical, psychosocial, sexual or economic violence. The Covid-19 lockdown has lead to women’s lack of access to their usual support network. However, women’s collectives and civil societies have adapted their fight to the virtual world. Online workshops, reading groups, and seminars are hosted weekly by different organisations to continue the ongoing discussions around violence, sexual harassment, job conditions, gender stereotypes, reproductive rights, and many other issues that affect women in their everyday lives. Despite having to deal with ongoing health, economic, emotional and social adversities, the Mexican feminist collectives are continuing to expand their work.

Published by: Oxfam International

This blog examines the reasons behind several European countries (Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria) wishing to leave the Istanbul Convention (which requires state parties to introduce laws that address GBV) despite the increase in domestic violence reported during Covid-19. In these countries, conservative ruling governments state that they do not seek to erode protections against domestic violence: instead, they have attacked the convention for endangering traditional family structures and gender roles. This reflects the potential success of a broader transnational movement across Europe, Latin America and other parts of the world of what they describe as ‘genderism’ or ‘gender ideology’ , a reaction against new threats to traditional gender roles. However, as these movements have grown in political importance, they are also encountering new forms of resistance: women are pushing back, defying the coronavirus pandemic to voice their discontent.

Published by: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

This policy brief begins by exploring how child marriage is deeply rooted in gender inequalities and discriminatory social norms. It also notes that the underlying drivers of child marriage in the West and Central African region – including family poverty, barriers for girls staying in or returning to school, the taboo around female sexuality linked to the perceived 'shame' of a pregnancy out of wedlock, and limited SRH services and information for girls and young women – are heightened during crisis such as Covid-19. The brief examines the situation of girls during Covid-19 and its consequences on GBV including child marriage, FGM and other negative effects in other domains such as food security, SRH and adolescent pregnancy.

Published by: Plan International and Girls Not Brides

This article aims to show how the gender perspective has been largely overlooked in practice during the pandemic response in Mexico. The authors begin by discussing how domestic violence is exacerbated during the pandemic in Mexico due to stress and economic uncertainty and confinement, which limits access to support networks and exacerbates the unfair distribution of unpaid labour (disproportionately assigned to women and girls, reflecting the inequality in the overall labour market). The article argues that research across all disciplines to face—and to learn from—Covid-19 should be done through a gender lens, because understanding the realities of women is essential to understand the pandemic’s true effects in Mexico and the world.

Published by: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry

This article begins by examining the kinds of violence driven by patriarchal behaviours that affect women during Covid-19, such as minimizing or monitoring victims’ communication with friends and family; depriving victims of their basic needs; withholding information about the virus and public health measures; and restricting access to the Internet. The authors propose best practices for social service providers during and after the pandemic and offer recommendations to service providers, shelter workers, and technologists (e.g., designers, developers, project managers who may need to receive help from advocates about the perpetrators’ mindset and the harmful gender norms that drive his behaviour) working to support domestic violence victims. As the pandemic continues to constrain women’s access to informal and formal support, the authors also highlight the media’s role in educating the public about IPV.

Published by: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry

Rising Flame initiated this research study in collaboration with Sightsavers to respond to the urgent needs of women with disabilities in India during the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of this research is to capture and amplify voices and narratives of women with disabilities and to make strong recommendations to ensure inclusion of women with disabilities in social, legal, policy and systemic responses.

Published by: Rising Flame & Sightsavers

Women with disabilities across Nigeria have lamented their exclusion from intervention programmes by governments meant to cushion the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Published by: Sahara Reporters

News article to accompany the launch of a UN report calling for a disability-inclusive recovery and response to the Covid-19 crisis. The report comes after UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said the crisis was intensifying inequalities experienced by the world’s one billion people with disabilities.

Published by: UN News

This podcast discusses how “gender” roles and norms impact general health and the Covid-19 pandemic. The podcast has two guest speakers both of whom are experts on how societal perceptions and stereotypes surrounding “masculinity” influence the health and well-being of men and women. Through Promundo, Dr Barker has done significant amounts of work in Brazil where toxic masculinity has been associated with the early deaths of millions of young men and Dr Burrell recently wrote the article: Coronavirus reveals just how deep macho stereotypes run through society.

Published by: seX and whY

David Moinina Sengeh, Sierra Leone's education minister, shares a photo of himself with his 10-month-old daughter on his back as he cares for her whilst on a lockdown conference call. The minister chose to share the photo as an example for other men and to challenge gender norms.

Published by: The BBC

In this commentary, the authors point out that there are important gender determinants to both men’s and women’s vulnerabilities to Covid-19, and call on the global health community to unpack and address these early in the Covid-19 pandemic response. They point to best practices and tools from two decades of engaging men in research and programming in the sexual and reproductive health field.

Published by: Global Public Health Journal

This article outlines some of the ways that masculinities have been changing among some social groups and reinforced among others during the Covid-19 crisis in Uganda.

Published by: School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda)

The Men Engage Alliance has compiled useful resources on digital activism for equitable, compassionate and non-violent ways of being men during the Covid-19 pandemic. The collection includes materials in English and Spanish from Men Engage Africa, Latin America and South Asia among others.

Published by: The Men Engage Alliance

This piece highlights the slow pace of including mental health in low and middle income countries's responses to Covid-19 measures with a focus on Ethiopia. It also highlights how access to mental health care is driven by inequalities. Structural factors or social determinants (of which norms are part) are key to understanding both drivers of mental ill-health and access to therapies to support those facing mental ill-health.

Published by: Addis Standard

This article shows how a mental health programme adapted during Covid-19 to support those in need through online/remote/teletherapy methods. In so doing it found that addressing structural factors (e.g. inequalities in access to health education, internet etc.) and basic needs (i.e. social determinants of mental ill-health) was crucial to the success of the programme.

Published by: Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy

This piece highlights how human vulnerability increases during crises which can also lead to increases in suicide rates. It notes that in India causes of suicide since the pandemic hit are more linked to starvation and accidents than the pandemic itself. In suggesting ways to prevent suicide, the article highlights how interventions need to be multifaceted both universally (addressing the social determinants of suicide, including preventing domestic violence and creating financial safety nets) and individually (targeting such as through crisis helplines and guidelines for remote assessment of suicide risk).

Published by: The Correspondent

This briefing discusses the mental health effects of financial inequalities in the context of Covid-19. Drawing on evidence from “Coronavirus: Mental Health in the Pandemic” research – a UK-wide, long-term study - it concludes Covid-19 is putting a huge strain on people’s mental wellbeing and that the burden of mental distress is borne disproportionately by those with less economic security. In some cases, these are people facing considerable existing challenges, such as mental health problems surviving in a destructive cycle of poverty and mental distress, or those facing structural inequalities due to belonging to an ethnic minority group.

Published by: Mental Health Foundation

This article shows how reduction in social interactions amongst adolescents during Covid-19 can have a detrimental effect on their mental health (which are also lessened, to a certain extent by digital forms of social interaction). The article is important as it highlights how Covid-19 may affect different age groups in different ways and also shows how social determinants of mental health (of which norms are part) are critical to understand drivers of mental ill-health.

Published by: PsyArXiv

This policy brief highlights how widespread mental ill-health is, even when not in pandemic contexts and how it can be driven by a range of factors. The brief calls for urgent attention for specific population groups (including women, adolescents, children, older people, health workers), and a whole society approach including looking at (underlying) drivers of mental ill-health such as violence and poverty.

Published by: United Nations

Analysis of stories across six countries - UK, US, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and India - found fewer than a fifth of experts quoted on the pandemic were women.

Published by: The Guardian

Countries with women in leadership have suffered six times fewer confirmed deaths from Covid-19 than countries with governments led by men. Unsurprisingly, the media has swelled with stories of their pragmatism, prowess — and humanity. This blog asks if these positive outcomes will influence our collective readiness to elect and promote more women into power in the future.

Published by: Harvard Business Review

The Covid-19 crisis is disproportionately affecting women and girls. This makes it all the more important that their voices are equally included in the decision-making spaces and processes where responses are formed. This report by CARE found that where women do have higher levels of leadership, governments are more likely to be responding to the crisis in a way that supports gender equality.

Published by: Care

This briefing is from the UK's Gender and Development Networking highlighting key areas for action and support for women's voice and leadership in Covid-19, including financial support, voice in the workplace, and engaging with existing networks and organisations in response planning.

Published by: Gender and Development Network

Research article looking at why gender equality is good for the economy and society, with the Covid-19 pandemic putting that truth into stark relief and raising critically important choices.

Published by: Mckinsey and Company

This blog looks explores ideas for longer term solutions during the recovery phase of the pandemic. Based on research from India, the blog looks at crisis management that can potentially bolster women’s economic agency.

Published by: Gender and Covid-19

This policy brief highlights the key impacts of the pandemic on women who work in the informal economy in developing countries. It underscores their vulnerability to economic stress, as this demographic often lacks legal and social protections, and analyzes government responses to address the economic fallout.

Published by: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security

This article discusses the International Labour Organisation (ILO)'s latest statement saying the pandemic is a bigger blow to gender-equal employment than it previously feared.

Published by: The Guardian

School closures, massive rates of job loss and furloughing, and a shift to working from home are all affecting how parents spend their time, and how mothers and fathers divide responsibilities for paid work, housework and childcare. But the divide is not even. This new survey data captured how 3,500 families with two opposite-gender parents are sharing paid work and domestic responsibilities.

Published by: Institute for Fiscal Studies