Abstract
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic provided the world with the platform to address gender inequalities. Yet during pandemic, people were kept on lockdown at home and critical everyday activities were halted as part of efforts to curb its spread. This study found that over 1 billion children and youth were out of school, resulting in learning impairments for kids, particularly those from low-income families. Approximately 94% of the world's employees live in nations that have work closures. With the global economy plummeting by 5% in 2020, and without steps to protect the most vulnerable, the number of people living in severe poverty rose by 96 million in 2021. The pandemic and its economic ramifications have had a regressive influence on gender equality. This study argues for the continuing need to address structural gender inequalities and women’s issues.
References
APTA/EBP (2020). The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Public Transit: Funding Needs in the U.S. Access on the internet: https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/APTACOVID-19-Funding-Impact-2020-05-05.pdf
Australia Department of Health (2020). Australia COVID-19 Vaccination Policy. Access on the internet: https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/12/covid-19-vaccination-australian-covid-19-vaccination-policy.pdf
Basset, M. (2020). Just Because You Can Afford to Leave the City, Doesn’t Mean You Should. [access: march 2022]. Access on the internet: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-cities-density.html
CDC (2022). Risk for COVID-19 Infection, Hospitalization, and Death by Race/Ethnicity.Updated Mar. 25, 2022. Access on the internet: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html
Chernick, H., Copeland, D., Reschovsky, A. (2020). The Fiscal Effects of The Covid-19 Pandemic on Cities: An Initial Assessment. “National Tax Journal”, DOI: 10.17310/ntj.2020.3.04.
CNN Brazil (2021). Health studies changing vaccination strategy and prioritizing the North against new strains. Access on the internet: https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/saude/2021/02/15/saude-estuda-mudar-estrategia-de-vacinacao-e-priorizar-o-norte-contra-nova-cepa
Deloitte (2020). Current funding opportunities for companies in the COVID-19 crisis situation.
Enaifoghe, A.O., Khoalenyane, N. (2018). Analysis of Socio-Cultural Impacts of Women Representation in African Political Leadership. “Journal of Gender and Behaviour (G&B)”, Vol. 16, No. 2.
Enaifoghe, A.O. (2019). Exploring Africa Political Structure and the Effort to Improve Women's Struggle for Representation in Politics. “Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa (JGIDA)”, Vol. 8.
—— (2018). Women Struggle for Representation in African Political Structure. “Journal of Gender and Behaviour (G&B)”, Vol. 16, No. 2.
—— (2021). South Africa’s Response to COVID-19 through a Multimodal Approach. [In:] Fall 2021 Special Issue: Living in an Era of Emerging Pandemics. The Zambakari Advisory, LLC. 2021. Page 62.
—— (2021b). Mitigating Structural Barriers to Global Economic Development in the Least Developed Countries. “ResearchersWorld – International Refereed Social Sciences Journal”, Vol. XII, Issue 2.
Enaifoghe, A., Idowu, T.A. (2021). The Attitudes and Perceptions toward Sexuality and the Social Influence on Gender-Based Violence in South Africa. “African Journal of Public Affairs”, Vol. 12, No. 1.
Enaifoghe, A., Brown, C., Maramura, T.C., Ajede, S.A. (2021), Bridging inequality gap in Africa for sustainable development: Assessing the role of women. “International Journal of Development and Sustainability”, Vol. 10, No. 7.
Enaifoghe, A.O., Maramura, T.C. (2019). The Proficiency of Gender Representation towards Realizing Good Administration in Governance for South Africa. “Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa (JGIDA)”, Vol. 8(2).
Enaifoghe, A.O., Maramura, T., Ndlovu, M. (2021). Critically Assessing the Effect of COVID19 beyond the Pandemic: The Social and Economic Impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Journal of Human Ecology”, 74(1–3).
Enaifoghe, A.O., Maramura, T.C., Ekanade, I.K., Muzee, H. (2019). The Socio-Political Dynamic Import of Citizens Participation in Public Resource Management in Relation to Good Governance for South Africa. “Journal of Social and Development Sciences”. Vol. 10, No. 3.
Ewinyu, A.K., Shedi, O. (2022). Women in SA continue to bear a double (or triple) burden. Online: 26 August 2022.
Federation of Canadian Municipalities (2020), Protecting vital municipal services. Access on the internet:
https://data.fcm.ca/documents/resources/reports/protecting-vital-municipalservices.pdf
Gorlick, A. (2020), The productivity pitfalls of working from home in the age of COVID-19. Stanford News. Access on the internet:
https://news.stanford.edu/2020/03/30/productivitypitfalls-working-home-age-covid-19/
Hantoushzadeh, S., Shamshirsaz, A.A., Aleyasin, A., Seferovic, M.D., Aski, S.K., Arian, S.E. et al. (2020). Maternal death due to COVID-19. Am. “J Obstet Gynecol”, 223. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.04.030.
Hensvik, L., Barbanchon Le T., Rathelot, R. (2020), Which Jobs Are Done from Home? Evidence from the American Time Use Survey. IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. “IZA Discussion Paper”, No. 13138. Access on the internet: https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13138.
HM Treasury (2021). BUDGET 2021: Protecting the jobs and livelihoods of the British people. Access on the internet: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966868/BUDGET_2021_-_web.pdf.
Iacobucci, G. (2020). Covid-19: Deprived areas have the highest death rates in England and Wales. “BMJ”, Vol. 369:m1810. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m1810.
Ikwegbue, P.C., Enaifoghe, A.O., Maduku, H., Agwuna, L. (2021). The Challenges of COVID19 Pandemic and South Africa’s Response. “African Renaissance”, Vol. 18, No. 1.
Jalnapurkar I, Allen M., Pigott AT. (2018). Sex differences in anxiety disorders: a review. “J Psychiatry Depress Anxiety”,4.
Mabilo, M. (2018). Women in the informal economy: Precarious labour in South Africa. A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Political Science) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
Mahler, D.G., Laknerr, C., Aguilar, R.C.A., Wu, H. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) on global poverty: Why Sub-Saharan Africa might be the region hardest hit. April 20, 2020.
OECD (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing. DOI: 10.1787/4dd50c09-en.
—— (2020a). OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19). Women at the core of the fight against COVID-19 crisis Version 1st April 2020.
—— (2020b). COVID-19 Policy Brief on Well-being and Inclusiveness. Access on the internet: http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/en/.
—— (2020c). Who Cares? Attracting and Retaining Care Workers for the Elderly. OECD Health Policy Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: 10.1787/92c0ef68-en.
—— (2021). OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19). Enhancing public trust in COVID-19 vaccination: The role of governments 10 May 2021.
UK Government (2020). Research and analysis: Ethnicity data: how similar or different are aggregated ethnic groups? Published 22 December 2020.
UN Women (2020a). In Focus: Gender equality matters in COVID-19 response. Access on the internet: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid19-response
—— (2020b). COVID-19 and its economic toll on women: The story behind the numbers. 16 September 2020. Access on the internet: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/9/feature-covid-19-economic-impacts-on-women
—— (2020c). From Insight to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19. Access on the internet: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/From%20insights%20to%20action%20-%20Gender%20equality%20in%20the%20wake%20of%20COVID-19.pdf
UNDP (2020). COVID-19 will widen poverty gap between women and men, new UN Women and UNDP data shows. Posted on September 2, 2020.
United Nation (2021). While Exacerbating Structural Gender Inequalities, COVID-19 Is Creating Opportunities to Boost Women’s Involvement in Politics, Public Life, Speakers Tell Commission. 19 March 2021.
—— (2020). Policy Brief: The Impact of Covid-19 on Women. 9 April 2020. World Bank (2020). Poverty: Overview. Access on the internet: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview#1
—— (2021). The Global Economy: on Track for Strong but Uneven Growth as COVID-19 Still Weighs. [access: 8.07.2021]. Access on the internet: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2021/06/08/the-global-economy-on-track-for-strong-but-uneven-growth-ascovid-19-still-weighs
World Health Organization (2021). Director-General's opening remarks at the World Health Assembly – 24 May 2021.
Yu S. (2018). Uncovering the hidden impacts of inequality on mental health: a global study. “Transl Psychiatry”, 8.