The COVID 19 pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems.

The year 2020 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and was intended to be ground breaking for gender equality. Instead, the spread of COVID -19 pandemic has placed at risk the limited gender equity gains that had been made in the past decades.

Pandemics and their resulting economic shocks affect men and women differently

Emerging evidence on the impact of COVID 19 suggests that women’s economic and productive lives are affected disproportionately and differently from men.

Across the globe, women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs and are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. They have less access to social protections and are the majority of single parent households.  As such their capacity to absorb economic shock is therefore less than men.

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