Crises are gendered. Because women and girls start off at a disadvantage in every society, they often have fewer resources to be able to withstand the impacts of crises and shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a “big revealer” in this regard. School and care service closures meant that women did an estimated 512 billion additional hours of unpaid childcare globally, adding to already large and unfair burdens. Partly as a result, the fragile progress that women had made in employment was wiped out, with their labor force participation projected to remain below pre-pandemic levels in most countries. Cases of violence against women, already a blight on one in three women’s lives prior to the pandemic, increased as lockdowns trapped women with potential abusers, and... Read More