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The four key lessons from Covid that should shape policy decisions everywhere

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Originally written by Laura Turquet and originally published by the UN Women on August 28, 2020.

All crises have gendered impacts – simply put, they affect women and men, girls and boys in different ways. COVID-19 is no different. Six months into the pandemic, what have we learned? What do policymakers and activists need to do to ensure that decades of progress on gender equality is not rolled back and efforts to 'build back better' benefit women and girls?

UN Women has released a series of policy briefs that outline clear choices and measures that will actively eliminate, rather than exacerbate gender inequalities in care, employment, safety and decision-making.

Here are four key lessons from this research that stand out:

The care economy can no longer be sidelined

Feminist economists have been saying it for years: the care economy is the foundation of the global economy. This key insight has entered the public consciousness like never before. The vast amount of care and domestic work – either unpaid or poorly paid – that women have always done in homes and communities has been the backbone of the COVID-19 response.

As daycares and schools shut down around the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus, care work was pushed back into the domestic sphere. While there is evidence that men in some countries are doing a little more on the childcare front, women continue to do the bulk of care and domestic work. In countries with weak health systems, it is women who are stepping up to care for the sick at home, often with considerable risks to their own health.

Too little has been done to support this work; but there are glimmers of hope. Countries such as Germany, Italy and Costa Rica have introduced measures including paid reductions in working time and work-sharing arrangements, expanded access to paid family leave and paid sick leave, including for self-employed workers and childcare for essential workers.

The economic fallout is hitting women harder

We know that more men (than women) have died from COVID-19. But, because of their weaker position within labour markets, the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic is harder on women than men. In developing countries, for example, women are over-represented among the informally employed, jobs that often lack social protection like sick leave or health insurance.

Many of these women are employed in paid domestic work, or jobs that require them to be in the public sphere, like street vending or market trading. As countries have locked down, these workers face the impossible choice between exposing themselves and their loved ones to the virus or going hungry.

Some governments have put in measures to directly address the gendered economic impact. El Salvador, for example, has mandated private companies to provide 30 days of paid sick leave to all workers over 60 years of age, pregnant women and those with pre-existing conditions; while Burkina Faso is providing cash transfers to informal workers, in particular women fruit and vegetable vendors. More measures like these are needed to ensure that the costs of containing the crisis are not borne disproportionately by those least able to shoulder them.

Services to respond to violence against women are essential services

We know this from past experience: when crises hit, violence against women and girls gets worse. In this case, the combination of the economic devastation and lockdowns, which have literally trapped women at home with their abusers, have created a perfect storm. Although it's not safe to survey women on their experiences of violence right now, we know from services providers – mostly small, underfunded women's organizations – that calls for help have spiraled upwards. From Argentina to the UK and Tunisia, providers of hotlines, shelters and online resources have reported an increase in demand of between 25 per cent and 500 per cent.

Lifesaving services to respond to violence against women must be treated for what they are: essential. In Canada, domestic violence shelters have remained open during the lockdown, and the Government earmarked CAD 50 million to women's shelters and sexual assault centres. Australia and France have also dedicated funding to organizations that support women experiencing violence. In Antigua and Barbuda, telecommunications firms agreed to waive all airtime fees for calls made to helplines.

As work and public services have moved online, cyber violence, like sex trolling and online stalking have intensified, with new forms of violence such as 'zoom-bombing' emerging to intimidate and harass women and girls. The effort to be one step ahead of these crimes requires a massive injection of cash. It is estimated that global investment in the prevention of violence against women and girls totaled less than 0.002 per cent of the total aid sent to countries between 2014 and 2019.

READ: How Naruthai Tansukasem continues to advocate for ending cyber-violence and online harassment

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Sexual objectification in the media can affect entertainers mentally, emotionally and physically.

Women's leadership and participation make a difference

Although women are Heads of State or Government in only 21 countries, what they lack in numbers, they are making up for in performance. Women leaders in Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand and Slovakia are being recognized for their early response to the pandemic, success in 'flattening the curve', and for communicating public health measures transparently and compassionately.

Before the pandemic, nearly half of the world's population (47 per cent) believed that men made better political leaders than women. Perhaps these visible successes will help to chip away at the discriminatory social norms driving these beliefs.

But in spite of their success, women remain under-represented at all levels of political decision-making – and their specific needs are at risk of being overlooked in the development, scrutiny and monitoring of COVID-19 policies, plans and budgets. As government resources are being channeled to the health response, are enough leaders speaking up to ensure that critical gender equality issues like violence and maternal health are addressed?

Women's presence and expertise is also critical in the realm of peacebuilding, particularly in the context of the UN Secretary General's call for a global ceasefire. If the goal is sustainable peace, then the evidence is clear: having women at the peace table matters. It creates broader agreements, generates greater buy in and ensures accountability for implementation.

The question for feminists is, whether this crisis can be a turning point for gender equality, and as governments plan, what would it mean to 'build back better'.

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and women's empowerment.

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.