Melinda Gates, an advocate for women’s rights internationally, wrote an article published online Wednesday in Foreign Affairs magazine about the COVID-19 pandemic’s outsized harm to women.
In “The Pandemic’s Toll on Women,” Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, calls out multiple, devastating ways in which women are suffering health, economic and societal damage to a greater degree than men. Those impacts include:
- Reductions in maternal care that lead to more home births and increased mother, fetal and newborn mortality
- Loss of access to contraceptives as supplies are reduced
- Lack of access to personal protective equipment that fits (PPEs are often designed for men)
- Women’s jobs are cut at a faster rate, and unpaid work increases as schools close and children need caring for
Gates cited the impacts of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to help predict some of the consequences from COVID that are playing out. She also suggested policy actions that could lessen the harm.
- Making sure that financial aid and emergency cash transfers target women as essential recipients
- Earmarking stimulus dollars for women-owned businesses
- Ensuring that women have cell phones for managing money digitally
- Encouraging employers to allow for flexible work arrangements to help women stay employed
- Listening to diverse experts and leaders in addressing COVID challenges
She concludes on a characteristically upbeat note: “This is how we can emerge from the pandemic in all of its dimensions: by recognizing that women are not just victims of a broken world; they can be architects of a better one.”
Gates has pursued numerous initiatives to support marginalized women worldwide. Five years ago she launched Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company with an equity focus, that just unveiled this year’s winners of the Female Founders Competition, which funds women entrepreneurs. She has been her foundation’s voice on funding family planning. Her 2019 book “The Moment of Lift” shares the stories of women’s empowerment and changes needed to boost equity.
Gates is participating in a live chat Thursday to discuss COVID’s effect on women. The event is hosted by the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society in partnership with the New York Times.
