Voices from the front lines of COVID-19

Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2020

UN Women is bringing the voices of women on the front lines of the pandemic. As essential workers, care givers and journalists, here are some s(h)eroes who are out there, every day, protecting and serving their communities.

“Nurses are the real heroes,” says Albanian doctor in the front line of COVID-19 response

Date: Monday, April 6, 2020

Women are playing a key role—often disproportionate to men—in responding to the disease, as frontline healthcare workers, as well as care givers at home. Experience of other disease outbreaks shows that they have the highest risk to be infected. Almost 12 per cent of Albania’s reported cases of coronavirus have been health workers, but no fatalities have been reported yet.

In a Serbian town, survivors of domestic violence are sewing face masks for those in the front line of COVID-19 response

Date: Monday, April 6, 2020

In an undisclosed location in Sombor, Serbia, 41-year-old Marija Tomic* is putting the finishing stitches on face masks. She has made hundreds of these fabric masks since Serbia declared the COVID-19 epidemic in March. Tomic is a survivor of domestic violence and lives in a safe house for women survivors. “I got support in this society when I needed it most and now it feels great to give something back,” she said. “It's a wonderful feeling to be able to provide a little help...

Step it up G7: An extraordinary time requires extraordinary solidarity 

Date: Monday, April 6, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic intensifies and the implications on women become more clear, members of the 2018 and 2019 G7 Gender Equality Advisory Councils urgently called on G7 member states to take into account the gendered dimensions of the crisis and to prevent the deterioration of gender equality and women’s rights worldwide.

She persists: Sport is a tool for empowering girls in Brazil

Date: Monday, April 6, 2020

UN Women and the International Olympic Committee’s programme, “One Win Leads to Another” gives tools of empowerment to girls and young women from vulnerable communities across Brazil through weekly sport practice and life skills training. In February, before coronavirus containment measures were put in place, some girls from the programme met the international football star and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Marta Vieira da Silva. Now, as the girls are confined to their...

Violence against women and girls: the shadow pandemic

Date: Monday, April 6, 2020

With 90 countries in lockdown and four billion people sheltering at home from the global contagion of COVID-19, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka highlights another deadly danger growing in the shadows: Violence against women.

I am Generation Equality: Lee Mi-kyung, overseas aid administrator and women’s rights activist

Date: Friday, April 3, 2020

Lee Mi-kyung is President of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). She served five terms as Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea from 1996 to 2016, and was Standing Vice-Chairperson and Representative of Korea Women’s Association United from 1987 to 1996.

Announcement: Generation Equality Forum postponed

Date: Friday, April 3, 2020

As the situation surrounding COVID-19 evolves, the number of people around the world affected by this disease continues to increase. In light of this crisis, the Generation Equality Forum will be postponed until the first half of 2021. The new dates will be announced in the coming months.

From where I stand: “I am fearful for smaller countries that have limited resources during COVID-19”

Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Ryancia Henry is originally from Antigua and Barbuda, she moved four months ago to Montecito, California, to take up the position of Director of Housekeeping, managing a team of 60 people, at a hotel that has now closed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. With international travel disrupted, and movement restrictions within the United States of America, Ryancia is among millions of workers in the hospitality industry considering what the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on her, her staff, her family and her friends.

Gender equality starts with you: Nine ways you can keep up your activism from your couch

Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2020

As everyone does their part to slow the spread of COVID-19 by practicing social distancing and isolation, we’re sharing some of the best ways we know to support gender equality in your homes and in the world, without leaving the safety of your own home, or your couch.

I am Generation Equality: Ibtsam Sayeed Ahmed, champion for women, education and disability rights

Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Ibtsam Sayeed Ahmed, 40, is a Syrian refugee enrolled as an incentive-based volunteer in the UN Women Oasis Center, in Za'atari refugee camp, Jordan. She is actively empowering women, youth and people with disabilities to stand up for that rights and pursue their education.

Take five: “We need to have a common vision and ideology to advocate for the rights of all women and girls with one voice”

Date: Monday, March 30, 2020

Getrude Mligo, 23, was born two years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. As a high school student in Songea region of Tanzania, the gender inequalities she saw in her community, especially child marriages that forced girls out of school, prompted her to look back to the 1995 blueprint and begin asking questions. In 2020, Mligo participated in a UN Women mentorship programme as part of UN Women’s Generation Equality campaign, in partnership with Plan International, which paired her with UN Women Representative in Tanzania, Hodan Addou. In this interview, Mligo shares what it means to be a champion for Generation Equality.

Press release: Greater support needed for working families as COVID-19 takes hold

Date: Monday, March 30, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its exponential growth, a technical note from UNICEF, ILO and UN Women on family-friendly policies and other good workplace practices in the context of COVID-19 shows that it is essential to support working families to minimize negative consequences for children.

Ending violence against women in the context of COVID-19

Date: Friday, March 27, 2020

As the current COVID-19 global pandemic spreads through the world, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), and its grantees, recognize the gender dimensions of the impact from the COVID-19 outbreak. In this challenging time, the need to respond to the immediate and long-term consequences of the current crisis for women and girls is critical.

Women and COVID-19: Five things governments can do now

Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2020

UN Women Deputy Executive Director Anita Bhatia takes a look at how impacts of COVID-19 are hitting women hardest, and how governments around the world can address these issues.

COVID-19: Women front and centre

Date: Friday, March 20, 2020

In a statement, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka calls on governments to recognize both the enormity of the contribution women make and the precarity of so many in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Checklist for COVID-19 response by UN Women Deputy Executive Director Åsa Regnér

Date: Friday, March 20, 2020

As governments respond to the global COVID-19 crisis under huge pressures to act fast, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Asa Regner, calls on leaders and decision-makers to answer 10 key questions about how their responses and policies will include and impact women and girls

Five big wins ushered in by the landmark Beijing Platform for Action

Date: Thursday, March 19, 2020

Since 1995, the Beijing Platform for Action has served as a blueprint for advancing global gender equality. But if you’re wondering what really changed and why it still matters to women and girls today, here are just five big wins it brought about for women and girls everywhere.

Paying attention to women’s needs and leadership will strengthen COVID-19 response

Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2020

A week since The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, the social impact of the Corona Virus is hitting women hard, around the world. Globally, women make up 70 per cent of workers in the health and social sector, and they do three times as much unpaid care work at home as men. As first responders, frontline health workers, primary care givers at home and community mobilizers, women are at increased risk of exposure to the virus. They are also playing a disproportionate role in responding to the disease.

Elena Crasmari: How a Moldovan woman with disabilities fought for her rights and won an election

Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Thirty-five-year-old Elena Crasmari was fed up with not being able to access the medical centre in her home village of Dolna – a rural community of 1,155 people, fifty-three kilometres from the Republic of Moldova’s capital city of Chisinau. Due to her disability, she couldn’t take the stairs, and had to get on her hands and knees to enter the building. “I went to the town hall to ask them to help me do something about the stairs of the medical facility,” Elena...