Covid: Merkel, pandemic risks undoing women's conquests

(ANSA) - BERLIN, 06 MAR - The Covid-19 pandemic risks slowing down progress on gender equality, as women carry out most of the tasks of caring for children confined to the home and jobs at risk, including in the health sector.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said so.

    "We need to make sure that the pandemic does not lead us to fall back into old gender patterns that we thought we had surpassed," Merkel said in a video message broadcast on International Women's Day on March 8.

Ledonne - he added - have been disproportionately affected by the emergency, despite being under-represented in decision-making roles.

    "More than 75 per cent of those working in the health sector are women - he recalled - from medical offices to hospitals, from laboratories to pharmacies," Merkel said - yet women account for just 30 per cent of management positions in those areas.

"It cannot be that women support our society to a large extent, but at the same time they are not equally involved in important political, economic and social decisions," she added.

    Merkel welcomed recent legislation requiring listed German companies to include more women on their executive boards.

But she said more should be done to support women, including through increased childcare facilities and equal pay.

(HANDLE).