Why your government needs a gender-responsive pandemic plan

This article is written by Rosemary Morgan, Erica N. Rosser, Heang-Lee Tan, Kate Hawkins, Anne Ngunjiri, Amy Oyekunle, Brunah Schall, Denise Nacif Pimenta, Eduardo Tamaki, Mariela Rocha, Clare Wenham*

Pandemics call for urgency. Policy-makers need to move quickly to save lives, jobs and help societies adapt to a new reality of social distancing and lockdowns.

However, emergency responses should still be underpinned by robust and evidence-based plans. If they are not, our response to the pandemic may overlook the needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups and exacerbate existing inequities.

The gendered impact of the pandemic

If we fail to take a gender-responsive approach, it will have negative impacts on the lives of women and girls.

Due to lockdown measures, women are leaving the workforce at greater rates than men. In Canada for example, work absences increased more sharply among mothers than fathers. From February to September 2020, the number of mothers who worked less than half their usual hours for reasons likely related to Covid-19 (i.e., caregiving responsibilities, reduced work shifts etc.) increased by 70%, compared to 24% for fathers.

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Women also experience greater rates of domestic violence; between March and July 2020, calls to the domestic violence helpline in Peru increased by 48%. And it is estimated that of the 1.5 billion students worldwide, more than 11 million girls may not return to school due to the pandemic, while the global charity Save the Children has estimated that poverty and interruptions in education put [500,000 more girls](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20%2932112-7/fulltext) at risk of being forced into child marriage in 2020.

To mitigate these outcomes, governments should prepare gender-responsive plans before, during, and after a crisis happens — be it a pandemic or a natural disaster. The new measures recently announced by the European Parliament, which seek to protect women’s rights and enhance gender equality during and after the pandemic, highlight the need for a gender-responsive pandemic plan.

In December 2020, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that the United States lost 156,000 jobs — all of which were held by women — the majority of whom were Black and Latina

Through the Gender and Covid-19 Project, which brings together academics from around the world to conduct real-time gender analyses to identify and document the gendered dynamics of Covid-19 and gaps in preparedness and response, we have published a brief which describes a gender-responsive pandemic plan and how it can be implemented.

It outlines the differences in the secondary economic, social, and security effects of Covid-19 across genders and supports decision-makers in crafting policy that addresses these. By describing priority areas for action and providing recommendations for implementation, the brief provides decision-makers with the tools they need to create a holistic and inclusive gender-responsive pandemic plan.

In this article, we outline some of the key components of such a plan and the steps policy-makers can take to ensure we are better prepared for the next crisis.

What is a gender-responsive pandemic plan?

A gender-responsive pandemic plan focuses on the intersectional needs of women, men, and gender minorities, in planning, data collection, response and recovery.

People experience pandemics and the interventions put in place by governments differently depending on their background; for some people, the pandemic hits harder than others. For example, in December 2020, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that the United States lost 156,000 jobs — all of which were held by women — the majority of whom were Black and Latina (in the same period, the employment among men actually increased by 16,000 jobs).

The simple reason is that Black and Latina women are often in jobs that aren’t covered by paid sick leave and can’t be done from home. When daycares and schools closed, it was often women who stayed at home to look after children. Government responses to either restart the economy, open schools and daycares, and provide stimulus checks for those out of employment therefore can have a disproportionate effect on women’s livelihood and wellbeing.

It is crucial to consider how differences in social characteristics, such as [gender](https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20%2930526-2/fulltext) and race, influence how pandemics are experienced and the efficacy of pandemic control and recovery efforts. By creating gender-responsive pandemic plans, policy-makers can ensure that they are able to effectively prevent, address and mitigate the fact that some people are more vulnerable in a pandemic compared to others.

Developing a gender-responsive pandemic plan must begin with an evaluation of existing gender gaps, and assessing how different groups might be disproportionately affected. Policy-makers should give special attention to areas with clear evidence of gender disparities: gender-based violence; mental health; sexual and reproductive health services; economic and work-related concerns, including increased domestic workload; inclusive decision-making; and education.

Addressing gender disparities before, during, and after a pandemic

Action is needed before, during, and after an outbreak to ensure that we are prepared for the unexpected, that our response is effective, and that our recovery has the highest chance of succeeding for everyone.

Before a pandemic emerges, policy-makers should integrate lessons learned from previous public health emergencies into pandemic preparedness strategies. They should also collect intersectional data, conduct intersectional disaggregated analysis, and monitor indicators of interest to identify priorities and needs. This can be used to develop appropriate budgets, plans, and policies.

Responding during a pandemic requires flexibility, adapting it based on how far along governments are in establishing a gender-responsive pandemic plan. Those who have taken the preparatory steps outlined above can respond more quickly and effectively. Less prepared policy-makers should seek to assess the needs of different groups by undertaking a rapid gender analysis to identify priorities, risks, capacity, and resources to inform strategies for response. More prepared policy-makers can begin by determining which strategies to execute according to the current epidemiological context and conduct a more thorough assessment following implementation of planned activities to monitor both the process and outcomes.

By putting in place a gender-responsive pandemic plan, policy- and decision-makers will be able to ensure that, when a pandemic hits, they are in a position to respond in a holistic, inclusive, and equitable way

Once a pandemic is under control, stakeholders will need to pivot to recovery and reconstruction as they implement transition planning to respond to and minimise the differential social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

A gender-responsive pandemic plan framework

In order to prevent women from being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, our brief includes a Gender-Responsive Pandemic Plan Framework, which covers illustrative activities across the priority areas outlined above. In order to address economic and work-related concerns before, during, and after a pandemic, policy-makers can:

Before a pandemic

• Develop culturally sensitive and context-specific communication campaigns to sensitize households to a more equitable distribution of household and caregiving responsibilities and advocate for employers to adopt related measures e.g., paternity leave

• Draft policies to improve the availability and accessibility of safe, affordable quality child and elder care services

During a pandemic

• Ensure an equitable supply of occupational health and safety amenities for all care-sector workers (e.g., appropriate personal protective equipment)

• Increase access to financial support (i.e., unemployment benefits, maternity protection, paid sick leave, insurance etc.) for formal sector and informal sector workers

After a pandemic

• Support return to work programs that purposefully plan for gender equity (i.e., targeted stimulus activities, trainings, credit etc.) and target displaced workers, as well as historically marginalized women (i.e., indigenous women, sex workers, women with disabilities, etc.)

• Continue to provide emergency cash transfers to assist those whose livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic, using systems that allow women direct access to the funds

Throughout the Framework, we stress the need for ongoing ethical intersectional disaggregated data collection across all stages of the response.

Beyond emergency responses

By putting in place a gender-responsive pandemic plan, policy- and decision-makers will be able to ensure that, when a pandemic hits, they are in a position to respond in a holistic, inclusive, and equitable way.

We must ensure that our efforts to address immediate needs within a pandemic do not create or exacerbate long-lasting social, economic, or health disparities. In order to do this, a gender-responsive pandemic plan is required. – Rosemary Morgan, Erica N. Rosser, Heang-Lee Tan, Kate Hawkins, Anne Ngunjiri, Amy Oyekunle, Brunah Schall, Denise Nacif Pimenta, Eduardo Tamaki, Mariela Rocha, Clare Wenham*

*All authors are part of the Gender and Covid-19 Project. For more information about the Gender and Covid-19 Project, visit the website here.

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