Women, Peace, and Security: Gender and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Apr 13, 2020 | Tracy Beattie, Hal Crichton-Standish, Daria Impiombato, Alexandra Pascoe, and Albert Zhang
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Amid the coronavirus outbreak, a number of commentators have stressed the need for gender analysis of the issue. Writing for The Atlantic, Helen Lewis discusses the ways in which a pandemic magnifies social inequalities and has different impacts on women than on men. Given how many people now need looking after (pandemic patients, the elderly, children), the structure of the workforce means that unpaid labour and caring duties will fall more heavily on women. Women make up the majority of healthcare workers, and many are in nursing roles with a higher level of exposure than doctors. Women are also more likely to be caring for family members at home.

Clare Wenham from the London School of Economics has highlighted trends from the Ebola epidemic and their relevance to the Covid-19 crisis. Many girls had to drop out of education, domestic and sexual violence rose, and more women died in childbirth. We can expect to see similar effects this time in both developed and developing countries if policymakers continue to adopt a gender-neutral approach.