COVID-19 and its economic toll on women: The story behind the numbers

Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2020

While everyone is facing unprecedented challenges, women are bearing the brunt of the economic and social fallout of COVID-19. Here’s how COVID-19 is rolling back on women’s economic gains of past decades, unless we act now, and act deliberately.

Press Release: UN Women and Asian Development Bank (ADB) join forces to step up COVID-19 gender-sensitive responses

Date: Thursday, September 10, 2020

UN Women and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have announced a new collaboration that would aim to protect women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region from the COVID-19 pandemic’s multiple negative consequences on jobs, livelihoods and well-being.

In Palestine one couple shows the benefit of sharing the care at home

Date: Thursday, September 3, 2020

Ilham Edaes, a 28-year-old health worker in the West Bank, Palestine has been back to work, every day, since May, serving the hardest-to-reach communities through a mobile clinic that offers breast cancer screening. Edaes has a five-year-old son, Majd, who is growing up watching his parents share childcare and domestic chores – an unusual occurrence in the region, where domestic and unpaid care work is largely seen as women’s work.

Press release: COVID-19 will widen poverty gap between women and men, new UN Women and UNDP data shows

Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2020

The pandemic will push 47 million more women and girls below the poverty line, reversing decades of progress to eradicate extreme poverty.

Expert’s take: Four lessons from COVID-19 that should shape policy decisions everywhere

Date: Friday, August 28, 2020

Laura Turquet is a Policy Advisor at UN Women, where she leads the organisation’s flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women. For the past decade, she has worked at UN Women leading major research and data initiatives that inform the organization’s advocacy objectives and empower civil society and governments to seek and implement change. She is also a co-founder of the UN Feminist Network.

Stronger partnerships and investment needed to support women’s recovery from COVID-19 in the Global South

Date: Thursday, August 13, 2020

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka calls on governments to ensure gender-responsive national plans to build back better after COVID-19

I am Generation Equality: Maya Tutton, youth activist working to end public sexual harassment

Date: Monday, August 10, 2020

Maya Tutton, 21, co-founded the Our Streets Now campaign in the United Kingdom with her sister Gemma to demand the right of women and girls to feel and be safe in public space.

From where I stand: “Women become migrants because they cannot find a job in their countries, so governments should think about their economic reintegration.”

Date: Friday, August 7, 2020

Alejandra Mónica Quijua Tintaya is a 34-year-old Bolivian national who packaged fruits in Santiago de Chile. She, along with other migrant workers, lost her job as cases of COVID-19 surged in Latin America. Her journey back to Bolivia illustrates the increased hardships that migrant workers are facing during the global pandemic, but also the importance women-led groups to protect their rights.

UN Women statement on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2020

On the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples we consider not only the enormous challenges faced by indigenous women, many of which are now further compounded by the pandemic, but also the valuable accomplishments, leadership and resilience that they bring to the recovery.

Shining a Spotlight on Mexico’s pandemic heroines

Date: Monday, August 3, 2020

As COVID-19 ravages the world, Mexico is among the countries hardest hit. Despite the myriad ways this global crisis is devastating women and girls, it has also served as a powerful reminder of the essential contributions of women. The women featured in this article represent just some of Mexico’s many pandemic heroines.

Press release: UN Women and Inter-American Development Bank urge governments to integrate gender as a catalyst for economic recovery (COVID-19) in the Caribbean

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2020

The UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN Women), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), convened High-Level representatives from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for an in-depth  discussion on the urgency of addressing the care economy and the impact on women, who comprise the majority of unpaid care workers.

In Yemen, women face added challenges posed by COVID-19 amidst ongoing armed conflict

Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2020

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has cut short the success of many small businesses in Yemen, and the closure of schools has increased the burden of care for mothers.

In the words of Christine Sadia: “Women must be given tools and training, so they fully comprehend what the risks are”

Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Dr. Christine Sadia is a gender and public health expert with over 30 years’ experience advising governments on health and gender issues, such as psychosocial needs of women in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and HIV programming during the Indonesia tsunami. UN Women is supporting Dr. Sadia in her current role as a Gender and Public Health Advisor for Kenya’s State Department for Gender Affairs, to advise on the country’s national emergency response for COVID-19.

Op-ed: How COVID-19 can bring gender justice

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2020

In the midst of another pandemic, we are still fighting hard for gender equality, with the coronavirus crisis amplifying existing inequalities and power imbalances and disproportionately affecting women – including in the devastatingly sharp increases in domestic violence. Yet the pandemic is also an opportunity to ‘build back better’ and transform structural gender inequalities.

The COVID-19 crisis in Morocco disrupts value chains for women’s cooperatives

Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Following the declaration of a state of emergency in Morocco due to COVID-19, rural women are struggling to maintain their cooperatives.

Gender assessments in Europe and Central Asia reveal pandemic’s devastating impact on women

Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2020

A survey to assess the gendered impacts of COVID-19 on women’s and men’s lives and livelihoods in ten countries/territories across Europe and Central Asia has revealed dire findings.

Take five: Why we should take online violence against women and girls seriously during and beyond COVID-19

Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Cecilia Mwende Maundu is a broadcast journalist based in Kenya and a specialist in gender digital safety. She is also the current Secretary General of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television, Kenyan chapter. During COVID-19, women and girls are using the internet more than ever to stay connected with the world, but they are also the targets of online violence in the form of physical threats, sexual harassment, stalking, zoombombing and sex trolling.

Six women’s issues explained with emojis

Date: Friday, July 17, 2020

Take a closer look at some of the urgent issues women are facing during the time of COVID-19, and we ask you to use your voice and platforms to spread the word.

Women as drivers of economic recovery and resilience during COVID-19 and beyond

Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2020

In a statement to G20 Finance Ministers ant Central Bank Governors, UN Women and Women 20 (W20) call for COVID-19 recovery plans to address women’s distinct economic roles, contributions and constraints, and put women at the centre of investment design to realize sustainable recovery.

Press release: UN Women and Women 20 call on G20 members to recognize women as drivers of economic recovery and resilience during COVID-19 and beyond

Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Amidst a COVID-19 pandemic that is expected to cause an unprecedented global economic downturn, UN Women, the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, and Women 20 (W20), the official G20 engagement group on women, today called on G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to put women at the heart of recovery efforts.