Most countries are struggling to have appropriate security for women and girls amid the backlash from Covid-19, according to a recent UN report that records government reactions to the pandemic.
The Global Gender Tracker looked at how 206 countries and territories handle abuse against women and girls, fund unpaid care staff, and increase women’s economic security.
Forty-two countries did not have programs to help women in either of these regions. About 25 of them had adopted certain measures in all three sections.
The United Kingdom has adopted initiatives to help women facing abuse but has not targeted economic opportunities for women in its response plans.
Domestic abuse incidents have arisen since the pandemic and statistics show that 135 countries have placed in place steps to respond to gender-based conflict situations, such as running helplines and shelters.
Earlier this month, the UN projected the poverty rate among women would increase by 9.1% because of the pandemic and its fallout. In July the McKinsey Global Institute reported that the crisis made women’s jobs 1.8 times more vulnerable than men’s, but if action on gender equality was taken now, $13tn (£10tn) could be added to global GDP over the next decade.
Sixty-one nations have taken steps to alleviate the pressure of treatment on children, which has intensified as schools are closing and elderly people have to be segregated.
Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, UNDP Manager, said that many of the steps placed in place by governments to reduce the effects of Covid-19 “could develop into long-term policies.”
Åsa Regnér, deputy executive director of UN Women and a former gender minister, said governments should introduce measures now to shift care responsibilities away from women.
Hakima Abbas, Director of the Association of Women’s Rights in Development, added: “The pandemic has certainly uncovered flaws in social safety programs, but has exposed how deeply our society relies on care work. Around the same time, the burden of treatment has risen dramatically. The Member States must invest in treatment facilities.
She said that what was required was a feminist recovery plan. “We can’t afford to go back to business as usual, and what was – and what shouldn’t be – deemed to be normal.”
On Thursday, UN Women will hold a high-level meeting at the UN General Assembly to examine the success of the gender equality targets set 25 years ago.
A study released by UN Women in March, using statistics from 170 nations, showed that the majority of women were paying 16% less than men, and almost one in five had witnessed domestic violence in the previous year. It found that the men occupied 75 percent of parliamentary offices, 73 percent of administrative posts, and made up 70 percent of climate negotiators and nearly all peace negotiators.
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