Policy Brief: The impact of COVID-19 on women

A pandemic amplifies and heightens all existing inequalities. With COVID-19 this is even more so. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex.

• These impacts risk reversing limited gains made on women’s rights in the past decades.
• At the same time, women are critical to our resilience and recovery. Placing women’s economic recovery at the centre of our short-term responses and longer-term recovery and rebuilding will make these efforts more effective, and contribute to building the inclusive, equal, and more resilient societies we need coming out of this crisis.