Women are most affected by pandemics — lessons from past outbreaks

Domestic violence has increased globally under COVID-19 social distancing and lockdown measures, reflecting similar patterns in areas affected by the Ebola outbreaks. To identify where critical interventions – such as hotlines, telephone counselling services, and increased funding for anti-violence organisations – can be effective, data on domestic violence should be collected both during and after the outbreak.

Governments and researchers must work with survivor organisations, as well as use qualitative research methods, to overcome data collection challenges. Additionally, best practices should be identified and shared to inform future responses.

Without concrete guidance from the WHO, governments can do more harm than good – such as by banning or restricting abortions, which can lead to an increase in unsafe abortions. In the short term, policymakers should make contraceptives freely available, permit medical abortions at home in online consultations with a health professional, and develop a standard minimum SRH service package to be implemented at the onset of every future crisis. In the longer term, researchers should examine the context and impacts of reduced access to SRH services during the pandemic to enable governments and others to implement programs where they are most needed.

Most government responses to the economic fallout of the pandemic fail to account for the disproportionate impact on women. Some governments have increased the coverage or payouts of existing social protection schemes. However, this leaves behind workers in the informal economy – e.g., women domestic workers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse – who do not have access to such protections.

In the short term, governments should purposefully integrate informal and casual workers into relief efforts. In the longer term, data disaggregated by sex and other factors should be collected on the workforce. The impacts of policies should be analysed from an intersectional gender perspective so that strategies can be adjusted where necessary.