The Gendered Nature of the Risk Factors of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Gender Equality: A Literature Review from a Vulnerability Perspective

Abstract

The risk factors of COVID-19 are not gender-neutral but gendered. A vulnerability approach to pandemics suggests that females are more prone to risk exposure while there are inequalities in accessing resources and opportunities. These inequalities create a gendered pandemic vulnerability. The current article addresses the specific vulnerability on the gendered risk factors encountered by girls and women due to the gendered pandemic in a global context and their impacts on gender inequality. This study analyses the existing literature on the gendered pandemic and risk factors on females that lead to gender inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this study adopts a vulnerability approach to the pandemic as an analytical concept. Our findings from the systematic literature review suggest that women’s pre-existing vulnerabilities are exacerbated in the wake of the pandemic due to the gendered risk factors worsening the gender equality gap. We conclude by arguing that our study’s finding supports a vulnerability approach to disasters.

‘Theory is beautiful’: Resistance and counter‐resistance to gender equality in teacher training

“…The European Union, in the 2021 index report of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), argues that ‘progress is an uphill struggle’. Paradoxically, despite the advances made by global feminist mobilisation over the last decades, strong regressions are happening in women's rights because of health crises, war conflicts and the advance of the extreme right in global north countries (Alonso & Lombardo, 2018; Siriwardhane & Tehmina, 2021). The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), therefore, warns that at the current rate of progress, we will not accomplish global gender equality for another 300 years 1…”