Pandemic Hits Women Hardest, Latam Losses Decade-Long Progress

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) confirmed on Tuesday that women are the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as nearly 58 million have been pushed into extreme poverty.

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“The pandemic has pushed nearly 58 million women and girls into extreme poverty, dealing a huge blow to poverty reduction efforts worldwide, and exacerbated gender gaps in income, wealth and education, impeding progress on gender equality,” the Chief of the Global Economic Monitoring Branch at UNDESA Hamid Rashid said.

Alarmingly, the report highlights that "in Latin America, for example, a decade-long progress in women’s labor market participation rates has been lost." This, as "women in developing countries experienced sharper increases in unemployment and larger drops in labor force participation than men, reflecting lack of job protection for women."

Moreover, UNDESA warns that policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have failed to address the particular needs of women. "From among 3,000 government policy measures, only about two-fifths addressed specific risks and challenges that women and girls faced as a result of the pandemic. Almost half of these measures did not include any labor, social or economic measure benefitting women," UNDESA revealed.