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At a time when the world is realizing the vital perspectives and leadership of women, which includes the long overdue recognition of the powerful and essential influence and leadership of women of color, now is the time to be proactive to ensure their rights are protected, their needs are met, and that they are supported during these challenging times.
With this in mind, I reached out to a diverse selection of global women leaders, asking them to share their views on where we’ve made progress in fighting the effects of the pandemic on women and girls, as well as where we need to focus our efforts.
Although the pandemic has starkly laid bare the many cracks in our systems, it has also given us a unique opportunity to rebuild in more equitable and just ways — with women’s leadership at the helm, which would benefit us all across many divides.
The ongoing story of women’s history is being created every day and depends on what we do now, collectively, in every moment. As Michelle Nunn, president of international humanitarian organization CARE, put it: “As we move forward, we must respond to the acute needs of women and girls, but we must also invest in them as leaders for our recovery and re-building.”
Here is what she and other women leaders had to say:
Tarana Burke: Survivors showed up for each other
At the start of the pandemic, it became clear immediately that women were going to do what needed to be done, and that’s show up for our elders, our families and each other. We saw this within our own communities of survivors of sexual violence. We pivoted to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and expanded our catalogue of healing resources.
Even as we see cases fall and the number of vaccinations rise, these findings still ring a loud and serious alarm.
We need a series of actions that will repair the damage and move us forward. This includes addressing economic abuse in the Violence Against Women Act; creating paid and protected leave for survivors; building capacity by supporting survivor-led initiatives to end sexual violence and investing in housing, health care, child care and programs that prioritize both cisgender and transgender women and girls.
Survivors will always find a way to show up and advocate for one another — that is how our movement began — but if we want to heal as a nation, we need elected leaders and public officials to show up for us, too.
Melinda Gates: In one year, decades of progress toward gender equality were erased
A year after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, hope is finally on the horizon as hundreds of millions of safe, effective vaccines reach people’s arms. But not everyone is seeing the glimmers of a better tomorrow.
This disease, like so many others, has exploited pre-existing inequalities — particularly when it comes to gender. In the US and around the world, women have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic’s social and economic impacts. In one year, decades of progress toward gender equality were erased.
The hard-won gains we’ve made against Covid-19 would not be possible without the heroic work of health care workers around the world, 70% of whom are women. During Women’s History Month, we can honor these women on the front lines by coming together as a world to insist people everywhere — regardless of who they are, where they live, or what they can afford to pay — have access to vaccines.
Opal Tometi: We haven’t yet made women and girls a priority
We know that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be felt in communities of color long after vaccines have been distributed and the disease itself is under control. We have seen increases in unemployment, evictions and suicides, and we know that it’s largely because the pandemic has exacerbated existing societal inequalities and amplified systemic failures. This is even more true with a gender lens, and for the experiences of women and girls in communities of color during the pandemic.
Despite the amazing achievement of having more women in political and community leadership than ever across the country, which gives us plenty of hope, there is still work to be done. As a society, we have not made women and girls a priority, and that’s become clear during this pandemic.
Sarah Eagle Heart: Indigenous women have been leading the way
Indigenous women are key leaders in their communities and in the world because of our cultural foundation of holistic and collective problem solving. Indigenous women organized during the pandemic as we often have to protect our sisters, family, region and Mother Earth. Yet we continue to fight for visibility and resources. Further investment in this narrative and healing work is essential to all of us. We funded traditional helpers and healers because we understand that in a post-Covid world, those that safeguard and sustainably cultivate our traditional medicines like elderberry, nettle and wild bergamot will be critical to ensuring collective healing in the future.
The pandemic shed light on systemic racism in health care systems, justice systems and states where mask mandates were not enforced. Movement leaders and allies following the death of George Floyd lifted up their indigenous brothers and sisters by stating, “Black and Indigenous” over and over, educating the world on the systemic racism in the justice system. We are supporting one another because we understand that standing in allyship makes us stronger.
Dr Carissa F. Etienne: We need as many women in leadership as we have on the front lines
Governments must take bold actions to transform systemic gender inequalities and strengthen health systems with a gender perspective. They must place the care economy at the center of recovery and ensure women’s leadership across society. The rights, health and well-being of women must be at the core of our public health actions.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO) has long championed the essential role of gender equality in determining health and social protection. It is time to challenge the entrenched gender norms and inequality that have held women back. Now more than ever, women’s leadership is essential to recover from Covid-19 and rebuild a sustainable and healthy future.
Reshma Saujani: It’s time for Marshall Plan for moms
Fatima Goss Graves: This Women’s History Month, let’s remember women fuel America
Women’s History Month traditionally celebrates all that women have done — past tense — but this year we are celebrating all that women continue to do. In the last year, women — especially women of color — have shown up for us as essential workers, as voters, as caregivers and beyond.
We’ve seen how women fuel our country and yet, we’ve also witnessed that when their collective well-being is an afterthought, all of us are harmed. No one prospers when states escalate attacks on reproductive freedom, or when institutions from our schools to the media continue to fail survivors of sexual violence. Our entire nation suffers deeply when women are forced out of work and not paid equally, and when our care infrastructure collapses.
The last year has been a case study of what happens to the country when women are constantly forced to prove our individual resilience and our perseverance in the face of adversity — enough is enough. We need future-forward policies, laws and culture change that lead us into safety, security, dignity and freedom.
Jennifer Klein: A government-wide commitment to gender equity, needed more now than ever before
Women everywhere are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. And, as is so often the case, Covid-19 is hitting the poorest and most marginalized women the hardest. In the US, more than 30 years of progress in labor force participation has been eviscerated. Women, who already shouldered a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities, are taking on even more, filling in as teachers and childcare providers and caring for sick and aging loved ones.
Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law Thursday, which will bring immediate relief to American women and their families. The plan will provide vital economic relief by providing $1,400 checks to 85% of households and make transformative investments that will lift 11 million people out of poverty.
Michelle Nunn: The pandemic’s secondary effects are a battleground
After more than a year, there is no escaping the impacts of Covid-19 on our communities. And without question, around the world, this pandemic has only exacerbated the social and economic inequities facing the most vulnerable and marginalized among us, most often women and girls.
CARE, the international humanitarian organization I lead, is continuing to provide the basics to stop the spread by building water stations, providing hygiene kits and empowering millions of women to share accurate public health information through our village savings program.
Critically, we are combating the secondary effects of the pandemic that hit women and girls hardest, like job loss and hunger. Sadly, we know for every month of lockdown, we can expect about five million more cases of gender-based violence. Data also shows more girls entering child marriage and dropping out of school.
CARE is now mobilizing for a fast and fair vaccine distribution. Our goal is to help vaccinate 100 million people starting with 275,000 health care workers, 70% of whom are women. It is our strong belief that none of us are safe until all of us are safe.
As we move forward, we must respond to the acute needs of women and girls, but we must also invest in them as leaders for our recovery and re-building. Investing in women and girls is not just the right thing to do; it is the best and most pragmatic way to advance human development and security around the world. This transformational moment calls upon us to not only continue to advance gender equality, but to accelerate it.
Kimberlé Crenshaw: We have to build back more than “better”
The fact that Black people are twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than their White counterparts should be an alarm that vaccine rollout and public health systems must be re-imagined and designed to address. In a year of so much tragedy, I gain some optimism from the fact that our collective consciousness is now anchored in outrage from the lives we have lost. And from that outrage, we can begin to build back — not just “better,” but otherwise.
Arianna Huffington: Too many women feel like they’re being forced into an impossible choice
Within this pandemic, and the global economic crisis it’s caused, there is a separate crisis for women that threatens to set back all the gains women have made going back decades. Women were already paying a higher price than men for our culture of stress and burnout, but now there is an even more urgent need to address the deepening gender inequality.
Right now too many women feel like they’re being forced to choose between being successful in their careers and successful in their roles at home. Getting the economy running again isn’t enough. Our new normal has to be a better normal for women — and the generations of girls who will rise to be our future leaders.
C. Nicole Mason: We haven’t made enough progress. We need these key policies to get there
Unfortunately, we have not made significant progress at fighting the effects of the pandemic on women and girls. Despite modest job gains in February, women are still down more than five million jobs since the start of the pandemic.
Because women are often the primary caregiver in families, schools and daycare closures have hit them particularly hard, forcing them to leave the workforce.
To chart a path for women and a full recovery, we must first get the pandemic under control, reopen schools and then get women back to work. For women who will not be able to re-enter the workforce because of caretaking responsibilities or the lack of available jobs, we must ensure that they have continued economic support. And for those women who will not be able to return to their former jobs, we should invest in education and training for jobs and sectors with higher wages and upward mobility opportunities.
Other key investments for women to ensure they can re-enter the workforce and sustain employment include childcare and paid sick leave.
Ai-jen Poo: After this crisis within a crisis for women, this is what gives me hope
The pandemic was a crisis within a crisis for women in the US. Women were immediately forced to make impossible choices, and it revealed just how much — absent a real infrastructure to support our caregiving responsibilities — we were holding it all together by a thread.
When care workers are underpaid, without benefits like paid sick leave, and unprotected at work, the care economy is in crisis: And that was before the public health crisis shut down our child care centers, schools and nursing homes. Our care workforce — disproportionately composed of Black and other women of color, including many immigrant women — continues to support us through the pandemic without access to a safety net or decent wages, while their own families need them too.
What gives me hope is that as we rebuild the economy out of the worst economic crisis of our lifetime, we have the opportunity to rebuild the care infrastructure, from unjust systems that have devalued women, especially Black women, to one that puts their safety and well-being front and center. Our society and economy have been built on the contributions of women: paid and unpaid, visible and invisible. We have the chance now to build a care economy that recognizes all of that work and supports all of our families, with quality jobs for care workers, too.
Elizabeth Barajas-Román: Women’s funds recognize the status quo is killing us
During the pandemic we have seen incredible innovation and ingenuity in the way that women’s funds and gender equity funders have addressed both the urgent needs of their local communities as well as investing in long-term policy solutions.
Women’s funds are not only hyper local, but they are also part of an ecosystem that includes national and global foundations working together through a dynamic network. They are uniquely positioned as both philanthropic institutions and advocacy organizations. Over the past year, this design allowed women’s funds to move money up to nine months faster than traditional philanthropy to where people were hurting most. They were also able to shape policy and funding recommendations to effectively address the challenges of a post-Covid reality, like securing private-public support for workforce flexibility, universal access to high-quality, affordable childcare and early childhood education.
While we remain hopeful that the demonstrable impact the women’s funding sector has had on the lives of women and their communities during the pandemic will trigger long overdue investment in solutions led by marginalized genders. With the vaccine rollout, we are already hearing clamor to return to status quo. And the status quo is killing us.
We know that Black, Latina and Native American women tend to have higher rates of pre-existing conditions that are associated with increased risk for severe cases of Covid-19, compounded by the lack of health insurance and higher rates of poverty. We must do better. We must invest in women- and girls-of-color-led efforts that address the complexity of their lives.
We must remember that single issue solutions are fragile. Now is the time to build something that lasts. Now is the time to invest in women’s funds and the women’s funding sector. The roadmap to recovery must include racial and gender transformative policymaking. The only way to respond and rebound effectively from the Covid-19 crisis is to ensure women are heard and empowered to design and implement programs and policies that are mapping an inclusive economy built on racial and gender equity and justice.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner: Moms run this economy, period
This has been a huge setback for families, for gender and racial equity, for businesses, for our economy and our country.
Families like Jessica’s, in Hawaii, are trying to make ends meet. Jessica lost her small business after her kids’ childcare closed. She then got her real estate license so she could return to the workforce; but she still couldn’t find affordable child care. Her family has depleted their savings and is relying on SNAP.
Tami in Kansas was forced to take unpaid leave during the pandemic to recover from open heart surgery. She returned to work but soon after had to take more unpaid leave when her children’s schools closed.
This is a time of tremendous urgency but also of hope: We can finally build a care infrastructure that spans generations to lift our families and economy, including universal paid family/medical leave, universal childcare, universal long-term care, and raise the minimum wage. These policies would help address the extreme emergency that many women, moms and families are facing — especially Black, indigenous, people of color moms who are experiencing compounded health and economic harms — and also help us build a future toward fair wages for everyone.
We can, and we must, build bridges to opportunity and create avenues for everyone to thrive. Some of those bridges to opportunity are being built right now with this week’s passage of the American Rescue Plan, which will significantly lift families and the economy and is a great start toward the transformational, permanent and universal change we need. It’s time to address the foundational values and systems we’ve neglected building for far too long. Now is the time to get this important work done.
Mónica Ramírez: These migrant women deserve a safety net
Our work is to help support and elevate migrant women. So many migrant women in our nation have been deemed essential. They have put their lives on the line to keep this country running, and their sacrifice has not been met with the protections they deserve.
Aside from the real danger they face during this crisis from the possibility of contracting and dying from Covid-19, they have also shouldered the fear of being among the hundreds of thousands of women who have lost their jobs. There is no safety net to catch these women. Missing work means the inability to sustain their families. Migrant women are experiencing both the risks of being essential workers and the challenges of high unemployment rates, becoming more vulnerable to different forms of violence and to the difficulties of meeting basic needs.
Amidst these challenges, however, I also have hope. Women are organizing and building power together to create a world that invests in and listens to migrant women, women of color and their families. We must follow their lead: the lead of the women and girls who may not be visible to some, including the Latinx women, Black and indigenous women in rural America. If we do this, our country stands the chance of seeing real transformative change as we rebuild from this pandemic.
Yifat Susskind: This pandemic has been a wake-up call about resilience
When hurricanes ravaged Central America in the midst of pandemic last November, indigenous women there sprang into action, distributing food and medical supplies and sheltering those who lost their homes in the storms. But they didn’t stop there. They used that process of aid delivery to strengthen the community for the long-term, leveraging their credibility as first responders to bring their communities’ demands to local government.
This model for saving lives and transforming communities will put us on a path to the future we need as we strategize how to end and recover from this pandemic.
One of the greatest lessons of global feminist organizing — that we all need to embrace now — is the need to put care at the heart of everything we do as a society.
To ensure this phase of our pandemic response reflects the reality of interconnection across borders, we need to reject nationalistic impulses that hoard medical breakthroughs for the wealthiest countries and insist on an international vaccine distribution to keep all people healthy, no matter where they live.
Surviving the next pandemic also means enacting long-needed policies now, like universal health care, child care and parental leave here at home. We need to robustly increase resources for international aid and health systems, and for the caregivers — largely women and girls — who sustain communities worldwide.
We need to treat the pandemic not as a one-time emergency that will soon be behind us, but as a wake-up call to cultivate the resilience we need for the future.
Teresa Younger: What real investment in women and girls looks like
With Covid-19 we saw a total breakdown of economic support and lack of a social safety net by the government, but we also saw philanthropy respond quickly to significantly increase and distribute funding to help communities meet essential needs such as housing and food. However, it’s still not nearly enough.
The pandemic shone a light on so many of the injustices and inequalities that we have in our society, and it’s critically important to recognize that women have been disproportionately impacted. In particular, women of color and women of low-income are too often underpaid and undervalued; yet they are the very people holding our society together, on the frontlines of our public health crisis and heading households.
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