LETTERS: Coronavirus is not a gender-blind disease

The year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action but with Covid-19, the limited gender gains made in the past decades are at risk of being rolled back as the pandemic is deepening pre-existing gender inequalities. Many females have been caught up in a fast-evolving situation that has disrupted education, health, protection and livelihoods. The World Health Organisation recognises the need to include women in outbreaks preparedness and response such as the global Covid-19 policy spaces but other than the disaggregation of the disease burden by gender, response measures have not addressed the gendered impacts. Gendered implications of quarantine, such as physical, cultural, security, and sanitary needs are largely overlooked and women have not been fully incorporated into surveillance, detection, and prevention mechanisms hence a missing gender lens in response.

Closure of schools has a differential effect on women, who absorb the additional work of caring for children, with the consequence of limiting their livelihoods opportunities. During the West African outbreak of Ebola virus disease, women’s voices were ignored thus resources for reproductive and sexual health were diverted to the emergency response, contributing to a rise in maternal mortality.