Have social protection responses to Covid-19 undermined or supported gender equality? Emerging lessons from a gender perspective

This paper examines the extent to which social protection responses to the crisis have recognised and addressed the gendered impacts of the crisis. The impacts of the Covid-19 crisis have exacerbated gender inequalities. The rapid onset of the crisis in early 2020 severely disrupted livelihoods, and these impacts were strongly mediated by existing gender inequalities in the labour market, gendered roles and responsibilities around care work, and also household composition, with women shouldering disproportionate burden of the crisis.

Drawing on case studies from South Africa and Kerala, India, the paper looks at the design and implementation features of the social protection response from a gender perspective, and offers policy recommendations for strengthening gender in social protection and crisis response in the future. By examining two case studies, the authors found that, even when social protection responses to the crisis have to some extent been gender-sensitive in their design, the complexities around gender, women’s multiple roles, and the acute deprivation experienced within many households mean that often this approach was not sufficient