How COVID-19 Can Bring Gender Justice

Jul 23, 2020 | Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Helena Dalli
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Disasters shape the course of history. In the wake of the Spanish flu of 1918, more women entered the labour market and in roles previously reserved for men. Some were even paid an equal wage to their predecessors and leadership positions in the workforce were taken up by women. A century later, in the midst of another pandemic, we are still fighting hard for gender equality, with the coronavirus crisis amplifying existing inequalities and power imbalances and disproportionately affecting women – including in the devastatingly sharp increases in domestic violence. Yet the pandemic is also an opportunity to ‘build back better’ and transform structural gender inequalities.

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women and Helena Dalli, EU Commissioner for Gender