About this Research Topic
On October 28, 2020 an article in NPR noted that “Women are seeing the fabric of their lives unravel during the coronavirus pandemic…the pandemic is wreaking havoc on households, and women are bearing the brunt of it. Not only have they lost the most jobs from the beginning of the pandemic, but they are exhausted from the demands of child care and housework—and many are now seeing no path ahead but to quit working.” COVID-19 has been declared a public health emergency of international concern and a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Disease outbreaks have traditionally exacerbated gender inequality and increased vulnerabilities borne by women, besides derailing hard-won progress. Across the globe the surveillance of and response to COVID-19 needs to consider the gendered impact of the virus in the immediate wake of the strategies implemented to combat the pandemic.
Women are affected more than men by the socio-economic effects of infectious disease outbreaks. They bear the brunt of care responsibilities as schools close and family members fall ill. During lockdowns brought about by the pandemic, women are at greater risk of domestic violence perpetrated by intimate partners and family members and concurrently have decreased access to violence prevention and support services. They are also 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, they are more affected by job losses in times of economic instability. Hard-fought gains for women’s rights are also under threat.
The goal of this collection of articles will be to highlight the multiple ways that communication can be used to explore the gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe and identify solutions that are applicable for diverse groups of women. Strategies and innovative approaches to reverse the debilitating impact of the pandemic should not just be about mitigating long-standing inequalities, but also about building a resilient world with women at the center of recovery.
This Research Topic seeks original research articles, commentaries, first-hand accounts, and case studies. We welcome evidence-based, applied, theoretical, rhetorical, and critical cultural scholarship. We hope to work on a variety of perspectives that can be explored through communication, including:
• the impact of COVID-19 on progress and commitment toward gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• the gendered impact of school closures on women’s careers
• the exacerbation of health disparities due to COVID-19
• reduced access to sexual and reproductive health services caused by COVID-19
• increases in domestic violence and sexual assault at home caused by state responses to COVID-19 like lockdown and social distancing
• barriers to disclosure, support seeking and service uptake among female victims of intimate partner violence
• the impact of COVID-19 on girls’ education in developing countries
• challenges for female academics during COVID-19
• the impact of COVID-19 on women’s mental health
• mediated narratives and media coverage of the gendered impact.
Women are affected more than men by the socio-economic effects of infectious disease outbreaks. They bear the brunt of care responsibilities as schools close and family members fall ill. During lockdowns brought about by the pandemic, women are at greater risk of domestic violence perpetrated by intimate partners and family members and concurrently have decreased access to violence prevention and support services. They are also 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, they are more affected by job losses in times of economic instability. Hard-fought gains for women’s rights are also under threat.
The goal of this collection of articles will be to highlight the multiple ways that communication can be used to explore the gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe and identify solutions that are applicable for diverse groups of women. Strategies and innovative approaches to reverse the debilitating impact of the pandemic should not just be about mitigating long-standing inequalities, but also about building a resilient world with women at the center of recovery.
This Research Topic seeks original research articles, commentaries, first-hand accounts, and case studies. We welcome evidence-based, applied, theoretical, rhetorical, and critical cultural scholarship. We hope to work on a variety of perspectives that can be explored through communication, including:
• the impact of COVID-19 on progress and commitment toward gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• the gendered impact of school closures on women’s careers
• the exacerbation of health disparities due to COVID-19
• reduced access to sexual and reproductive health services caused by COVID-19
• increases in domestic violence and sexual assault at home caused by state responses to COVID-19 like lockdown and social distancing
• barriers to disclosure, support seeking and service uptake among female victims of intimate partner violence
• the impact of COVID-19 on girls’ education in developing countries
• challenges for female academics during COVID-19
• the impact of COVID-19 on women’s mental health
• mediated narratives and media coverage of the gendered impact.
Keywords: COVID-19, gendered impact, disempowerment, inequality, strategies and responses
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
