COVID-19 and the gender paradox

IF 1.5 Q2 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Global Social Policy Pub Date : 2022-04-01 DOI:10.1177/14680181221079097

Julia Smith

{"title":"COVID-19 and the gender paradox","authors":"Julia Smith","doi":"10.1177/14680181221079097","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Back in 2008, David Fidler coined the term ‘the gender paradox’, which he described in the following terms: ‘We perceive that problems concerning women’s health . . . are growing at the same time that gender-informed analysis of global health issues has become more pervasive’ (Fidler, 2008: 148). He goes on to describe an inverted triangle within global health where there are numerous standards related to women’s health, but little incorporation of these into organizational practices or national implementation, and even less evidence of improved health outcomes for women. The response to COVID-19 has taken the gender paradox to a new level. We see unprecedent attention to the gendered effects of pandemics, in terms of not only health effects, but also the disproportionate social and economic impacts on women, yet little progress in rectifying these inequities (Harman, 2021). In this brief comment, I share two examples of how the gender paradox plays out in policy spaces – both global (the World Health Organization (WHO)) and national (Canada) – and then reflect on what can be learned in order to overcome barriers to transformative change. The WHO is mandated by the International Health Regulations to lead and coordinate responses to Public Health Emergencies of International Concern. While not an implementing organization, WHO provides technical guidance and holds normative power in its ability to set standards and champion agendas within global health; as such, its leadership in promoting gender-sensitive health responses is paramount (Wenham and Davies, 2021). The WHO has demonstrated some follow through on its commitments to mainstream gender (adopted in its Gender Strategy in 2008 and continued in the 13th General Programme of Work 2019–2023) in its COVID-19 response. In May 2020, it released a Gender and COVID advocacy brief and issued guidance on monitoring the unintended consequences of public health lockdowns, including gender-based violence and access to sexual and reproductive healthcare (WHO, 2020). Partially in response to pressure from organizations like Women in Global Health, as well as feminist advocates within and outside the organization, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with civil society organizations, in September 2020, and","PeriodicalId":46041,"journal":{"name":"Global Social Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Social Policy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14680181221079097","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 2

Abstract

Back in 2008, David Fidler coined the term ‘the gender paradox’, which he described in the following terms: ‘We perceive that problems concerning women’s health . . . are growing at the same time that gender-informed analysis of global health issues has become more pervasive’ (Fidler, 2008: 148). He goes on to describe an inverted triangle within global health where there are numerous standards related to women’s health, but little incorporation of these into organizational practices or national implementation, and even less evidence of improved health outcomes for women. The response to COVID-19 has taken the gender paradox to a new level. We see unprecedent attention to the gendered effects of pandemics, in terms of not only health effects, but also the disproportionate social and economic impacts on women, yet little progress in rectifying these inequities (Harman, 2021). In this brief comment, I share two examples of how the gender paradox plays out in policy spaces – both global (the World Health Organization (WHO)) and national (Canada) – and then reflect on what can be learned in order to overcome barriers to transformative change. The WHO is mandated by the International Health Regulations to lead and coordinate responses to Public Health Emergencies of International Concern. While not an implementing organization, WHO provides technical guidance and holds normative power in its ability to set standards and champion agendas within global health; as such, its leadership in promoting gender-sensitive health responses is paramount (Wenham and Davies, 2021). The WHO has demonstrated some follow through on its commitments to mainstream gender (adopted in its Gender Strategy in 2008 and continued in the 13th General Programme of Work 2019–2023) in its COVID-19 response. In May 2020, it released a Gender and COVID advocacy brief and issued guidance on monitoring the unintended consequences of public health lockdowns, including gender-based violence and access to sexual and reproductive healthcare (WHO, 2020). Partially in response to pressure from organizations like Women in Global Health, as well as feminist advocates within and outside the organization, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with civil society organizations, in September 2020, and

查看原文本刊更多论文

新冠肺炎与性别悖论

早在2008年，大卫·菲德勒(David Fidler)就创造了“性别悖论”一词，他用以下术语来描述:“我们认为，与女性健康有关的问题……与此同时，对全球健康问题进行的性别分析也越来越普遍" (Fidler, 2008: 148)。他接着描述了全球卫生中的一个倒三角，其中有许多与妇女健康有关的标准，但很少将这些标准纳入组织实践或国家实施，妇女健康结果得到改善的证据更少。COVID-19的应对措施将性别悖论推向了一个新的高度。我们看到，不仅在健康影响方面，而且在对妇女的不成比例的社会和经济影响方面，流行病对性别的影响受到前所未有的关注，但在纠正这些不平等方面进展甚微(Harman, 2021年)。在这篇简短的评论中，我将分享两个例子，说明性别悖论如何在政策空间中发挥作用——全球(世界卫生组织(世卫组织))和国家(加拿大)——然后反思可以学到什么，以克服变革的障碍。根据《国际卫生条例》，世卫组织负责领导和协调应对国际关注的突发公共卫生事件。世卫组织虽然不是一个实施组织，但它提供技术指导，并在全球卫生领域制定标准和倡导议程方面拥有规范性权力;因此，其在促进对性别问题敏感的卫生对策方面的领导作用至关重要(Wenham和Davies, 2021年)。世卫组织在应对2019冠状病毒病方面，已在一定程度上兑现了其对主流性别问题的承诺(2008年《性别战略》通过，并在《2019-2023年第十三个工作总规划》中得到延续)。2020年5月，世卫组织发布了一份性别与COVID宣传简报，并发布了关于监测公共卫生封锁的意外后果的指南，包括基于性别的暴力以及获得性保健和生殖保健的机会(世卫组织，2020年)。部分是为了应对来自妇女参与全球卫生等组织以及本组织内外女权主义倡导者的压力，世卫组织总干事谭德塞博士于2020年9月会见了民间社会组织

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Global Social Policy POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

3.20

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Global Social Policy is a fully peer-reviewed journal that advances the understanding of the impact of globalisation processes upon social policy and social development on the one hand, and the impact of social policy upon globalisation processes on the other hand. The journal analyses the contributions of a range of national and international actors, both governmental and non-governmental, to global social policy and social development discourse and practice. Global Social Policy publishes scholarly policy-oriented articles and reports that focus on aspects of social policy and social and human development as broadly defined in the context of globalisation be it in contemporary or historical contexts.