CARE has already demonstrated the impact that COVID-19 will have, and already has had, on women and girls. Now, as the fallout from the pandemic deepens, CARE is drawing attention to the short- and longer-term effects of the crisis on women’s economic wellbeing. Although people of all genders have been affected, women and girls will suffer disproportionately. The economic and financial impacts of public health crises are extremely gendered. Globally, and particularly in development and humanitarian settings, women are more likely to work in informal and/or low-paid jobs—the very jobs that are most prone to disruption during public health emergencies. These jobs frequently lack the legal and social protections that could help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. When considered alongside the gender norms that restrict women’s and girls’ roles in society and their intersectional identities, it is clear that COVID-19 puts decades of progress towards women’s and girls’ economic justice and rights at risk.
Read the full report here.