Strengthening Gender Measures and Data in the COVID-19 Era: An Urgent Need for Change
Categories: Global Public Health, Human Rights, Humanitarian Emergencies
Sub-Categories: COVID-19, Economic Participation, Economic Recovery, Human Development, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Sexual and Reproductive Health
Region: No Region
Year: 2021
Citation: "Strengthening Gender Measures and Data in the COVID-19 Era: An Urgent Need for Change." The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. March 2021.
Sub-Categories: COVID-19, Economic Participation, Economic Recovery, Human Development, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Sexual and Reproductive Health
Region: No Region
Year: 2021
Citation: "Strengthening Gender Measures and Data in the COVID-19 Era: An Urgent Need for Change." The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. March 2021.
Executive Summary
COVID-19 may be gender blind, but it is not gender neutral. Emerging evidence shows tremendous gender disparities in the health and socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic, with a disproportionately negative impact on women’s livelihoods, unpaid care work burden, mental health, and subjection to gender-based violence. However, a lack of gender data impedes our ability to measure, preempt, and respond. Understanding the extent of these impacts is the first step toward reversing course.
The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing gender data gaps—particularly around health, education, and economic opportunity—that undermine our ability to intentionally craft gender-responsive policies and programmes.
Filling these data gaps poses a significant challenge as many data collection efforts have been disrupted due to COVID-19 control measures, but without addressing these gender data gaps and collection obstacles, we cannot fully understand or mitigate the gendered impacts of the pandemic.