Gender and COVID-19 : What Have We Learnt, One Year Later?
One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper takes stock of new data and analysis to provide an up-to date picture of how women and men have been affected differently in terms of endowments, economic conditions, and agency. With regards to healt...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/446791624368460544/Gender-and-COVID-19-What-have-we-learnt-one-year-later http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35829 |
| Summary: | One year into the COVID-19 pandemic,
this paper takes stock of new data and analysis to provide
an up-to date picture of how women and men have been
affected differently in terms of endowments, economic
conditions, and agency. With regards to health outcomes, men
have suffered a disproportionate burden of COVID-19
mortality, and more men than women were diagnosed with
COVID-19. On the other hand, the disruptions in service
provision have worsened reproductive health outcomes in
several countries. In terms of education, data is scarce but
there is no evidence for the hypothesis that families
redirected scarce resources to prioritize education of boys
over girls. However, girls report having taken on the
additional care burden to a larger extent than boys, with
potential impacts on their learning time. In terms of labor
market consequences, women were more likely than men to stop
working and have borne the brunt of the increase in the
demand for care work. Businesses with female top managers
have also experienced disproportionately more negative
impacts. Finally, with respect to voice and agency, the risk
of violence has increased for women and girls, especially
intimate partner violence. In addition, women have been
under-represented in decision-making on COVID-19 and, in
some contexts, disadvantaged in access to critical
information. The paper concludes with highlighting the
importance of collecting sex-disaggregated data to
understand the gender-differentiated impacts of the pandemic. |
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