Globally, women
lost 54 million jobs
in 2019-20
. They are
disproportionately affected
by environmental pollution, but they are also excluded from decision-making on policies and funding to address emergencies, including that of the pandemic. Although they have been at the forefront of the response to Covid-19, constituting 70% of health workers, they currently hold only 24% of the seats in the Covid-19 task forces that coordinated the response around the world. To highlight how the pandemic "has exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities" is UN Women which launches a new "
Feminist plan for sustainability and social justice, 'beyond Covid'".
According to the document presented by the United Nations body for gender equality and developed by over 100 international experts, "by the end of 2021, men's jobs will be resumed, but there will still be 13 million women less occupied ". Among other things, it says, "even before the pandemic, women worked unpaid care work three times more frequently than men".
To address these crises they cross each other, UN Women asks for 4 actions. First of all,
increase public investments for assistance
and social infrastructure, increasing support for unpaid health workers: this "it could create 40-60% more jobs than the same investment in construction. ”Secondly, it must
"systematically ensure the representation of women in
public participation
structures
and mechanisms that address climate change and emergency response". The road map therefore asks for "
funding for
women's rights
organizations
," sadly underfunded today ", so much so that in 2018-19 they received only a very small fraction of total aid. A Women finally asks to
" exploit the potential of transition towards environmental sustainability
, which could create up to 24 million new green jobs "by giving women the opportunity to" access their fair share of opportunities ".