March felt more like global disaster month than Women’s History Month, with COVID-19 consistently dominating the headlines.
Yet in the midst of the critical pandemic response, we can’t lose sight of how gender is shaping key global trends—and how supposedly “gender-blind” policy responses miss a critical piece of the puzzle.
Frustrated global health experts point out that “policies and public health efforts have not addressed the gendered impacts of disease outbreaks”—noting that there is no gender analysis of COVID-19.
However, understanding how disease outbreaks affect women differently than men is critical to creating equitable and effective policy responses.
As Helen Lewis…
