Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Women are most affected by pandemics — lessons from past outbreaks

The social and economic impacts of COVID-19 fall harder on women than on men. Governments need to gather data and target policy to keep all citizens equally safe, sheltered and secure.
  1. Clare Wenham

    1. Clare Wenham is an assistant professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Julia Smith

    1. Julia Smith is a research associate in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  3. Sara E. Davies

    1. Sara E. Davies is a professor of international relations at the School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  4. Huiyun Feng

    1. Huiyun Feng is a senior lecturer at the School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  5. Karen A. Grépin

    1. Karen A. Grépin is an associate professor at the School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  6. Sophie Harman

    1. Sophie Harman is a professor of international politics in the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  7. Asha Herten-Crabb

    1. Asha Herten-Crabb is a PhD student in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  8. Rosemary Morgan

    1. Rosemary Morgan is an assistant scientist in the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

A woman wearing a face mask and apron sells face masks at a market in Mexico city

A woman sells face masks in Mexico City, having lost her job as a domestic worker. Credit: Manuel Velasquez/Getty

Women are affected more than men by the social and economic effects of infectious-disease outbreaks. They bear the brunt of care responsibilities as schools close and family members fall ill1,2. They are at greater risk of domestic violence3 and are disproportionately disadvantaged by reduced access to sexual- and reproductive-health services. Because women are more likely than men to have fewer hours of employed work and be on insecure or zero-hour contracts, they are more affected by job losses in times of economic instability2.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 583, 194-198 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02006-z

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 08 July 2020: An earlier version of this Comment erroneously stated that 94 countries or regions had reported commitments to support informal workers financially.

References

  1. Human Rights Watch. Neglected and Unprotected: The Impact of the Zika Outbreak on Women and Girls in Northeastern Brazil (Human Rights Watch, 2017).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bandiera, O. et al. The Economic Lives of Young Women in the Time of Ebola: Lessons from an Empowerment Programme (Working Paper F-39301-SLE-2) (International Growth Centre, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Peterman, A. et al. Pandemics and Violence Against Women and Children: Working Paper 528 (Center for Global Development, 2020).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bayefsky, M. J., Bartz, D. & Watson, K. L. N. Engl. J. Med. 382, e47 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Kabia, A. B. ‘Women in Sierra Leone’s Labour Market.’ China Daily (9 February 2016); available at https://go.nature.com/3fswaiz

  6. Davies, S. E., Harman, S., Manjoo, R., Tanyag, M. & Wenham, C. Lancet 393, 601–603 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Roesch, E., Amin, A., Gupta, J. & García-Moreno, C. Br. Med. J. 369, m1712 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. UK Office for National Statistics. Domestic Abuse Victim Characteristics, England and Wales: Year Ending March 2019 (ONS, 2019).

    Google Scholar 

  9. World Health Organization. Understanding and Addressing Violence against Women: Femicide (WHO, 2020)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Klugman, J. Gender Based Violence and the Law (World Bank, 2017).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Fraser, E. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Violence against Women and Girls. VAWG Helpdesk Research Report No. 284 (UK Department for International Development, 2020).

    Google Scholar 

  12. United Nations Population Fund. Recovering from the Ebola Virus Disease: Rapid Assessment of Pregnant Adolescent Girls in Sierra Leone (UNFPA, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Sedgh, G. et al. Lancet 388, 258–267 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Wenham, C. et al. Glob. Health 15, 49 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Marteleto, L. J., Guedes, G., Coutinho, R. Z. & Weitzman, A. Demography https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-020-00871-x (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Gentilini, U. Social Protection and Jobs Responses to COVID-19: A Real-Time Review of Country Measures (World Bank, 2020).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Bonnet, F., Vanek, J. & Chen, M. A. Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Brief (WIEGO/ILO, 2019).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Man, J. ‘In Hong Kong, a setback for domestic-worker rights.’ Time (29 March 2012).

  19. Abuya, T. et al. ‘COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices in urban slums in Nairobi, Kenya.’ Version 13.0 Harvard Dataverse https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VO7SUO (2020).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links