Compass Gender: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Highlights Gendered Impact of COVID-19

Melanne Verveer, the moderator, previously served as the first United States ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues. (Department of State)

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) held a virtual discussion about the gendered impact of COVID-19 on April 8. The event was moderated by the GIWPS executive director, former-Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer.

Verveer opened the discussion by explaining the costs borne by women in the face of the pandemic. As 70 percent of the world’s health workforce, many women are at higher risk of exposure to the virus. They also suffer disproportionately from economic stress and risk domestic abuse. These conditions are aggravated by humanitarian crises such as conflict and forced migration.

David Miliband, the president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, pointed out the sexual and reproductive health risks to women posed by the outbreak of COVID-19. Women and girls need resources to address their health needs, but healthcare providers are already overwhelmed. As a result, women and girls do not receive sufficient support. During the ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone saw 3,500 more maternal deaths, neonatal deaths, and stillbirths as women lost access to vital healthcare services and teenage pregnancy rose.

Miliband also explained the economic vulnerability that women face, as they are more likely to work in informal sectors lacking the safety nets to protect them through an economic downturn.

Dr. Orzala Nemat, director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, discussed the pandemic’s unique effects in Afghanistan. Due to the country’s low healthcare capacity, its population is vulnerable in the face of an extreme outbreak. Additionally, out of the already insufficient quantity of doctors, few are women, so women lack specific protection. At the same time, continued war in Afghanistan can facilitate the spread of the virus, worsening the situation and its implications for women’s health. She called on the audience to put pressure on their governments to call for a ceasefire in Afghanistan and countries like it.

Anita Bhatia, assistant secretary general and deputy executive director for resource management, sustainability and partnerships at UN Women, described the actions that must be taken to create more gender parity in humanitarian response. She called for sex-disagregated data, waiving conditions that prevent women from receiving stimulus checks, paying attention to unpaid care, combatting domestic violence by making shelters essential, keeping hotlines open, sensitizing law enforcement, and forcing policymakers to speak about gender.

She also called for a role for women’s groups in decision-making.

“Every time we turn on the television, there are men speaking about the pandemic, and we need to make attempts to make sure that women are actually at the table influencing decision-making,” Bhatia said.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, the chief executive of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, turned the conversation to women’s role in fighting the pandemic. She described how women and youth peacebuilders are making and distributing face masks and food packages to vulnerable populations and added that in Ukraine, women are setting up phone and text networks for women facing abuse.

Though, as Verveer put it, “COVID-19 does not discriminate,” women are uniquely impacted by the pandemic in negative ways. Despite their increased vulnerability, Verveer reminded the audience that women are “central to the fight against COVID-19.”