Towards a more gender-equitable COVID-19 response

As the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to ripple across the world, they leave in their wake an upheaval touching all areas of public life. While all have been effected, no segment of the population has been impacted more, and in more varied ways, than women. The pandemic has shown scant regard for women’s socio-economic or marital status, for motherhood, occupation ethnicity or region of origin. Instead, it has brought into stark relief the fragility of global progress toward gender equality, illuminating the deep and ongoing imbalances in our political, social and economic systems and threatening what advances have been accomplished over the past few decades.