Why COVID-19 makes the International Women’s Day challenge more urgent

This International Women’s Day, it seems there is much to celebrate in terms of female political representation. For the first time ever, 2 of the 3 Bretton Woods institutions—the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization—are headed by women. Kamala Harris is the first woman to serve as US Vice President, while President Joe Biden has nominated a cabinet that “looks like America”—including almost 50% women. This follows headline-driving announcements by French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in recent years to do the same. So is this a “mission accomplished” moment? Far from it. Rather, the #ChooseToChallenge theme of International Women’s Day 2021 is an apt—and urgent—call to action.

At last count, UN Women reported that only 14 countries have women in 50% or more of government ministerial positions. And women make up 50% or more of national legislators in just 4 countries worldwide. Among the G20 member countries—which account for 73% of the global economy and 59% of the global population—only 1 has a female head of government. So after German Chancellor Angela Merkel steps down later this year, the G20 Leaders Summits will likely once again be an all-male club.

The COVID-19 crisis is erasing women’s gains in the workforce…

This continued lack of women’s political representation matters greatly in the COVID-19 era. Women account for about 70% of the global healthcare workforce, so they have been at the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. And women also account for a majority of teachers, cleaners, retail workers and market vendors—all of whom are at disproportionate risk of exposure to the virus.  

Working women have not only been more exposed to COVID-19—they have also suffered disproportionate negative economic effects from this crisis. In the United States, for example, multiple studies (including this one from the Brookings Institution) have outlined the extreme hardships the pandemic has placed working mothers, women in low-paying jobs, and working women more broadly. In January alone, 275,000 women left the US labor force, bringing the total to more than 2.3 million since the start of the pandemic. As a result, the female labor force participation rate in the US has fallen to a 33-year low.

Women have also left the workforce in large numbers in Canada, Japan, and South Korea. But working women have fared better in Australia, Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The Peterson Institute for International Economics argues that the difference comes down to government policy choices. The countries in which women’s labor force participation has been resilient enacted policies that support sectors with high female employment or provided help for daycare centers and other child services, enabling mothers to keep working.

…and raising the risk to girls’ education

Before the pandemic, a greater share of girls were in school than ever before. And there was evidence of an educational gender gap reversal, in which more women were attaining higher levels of schooling than their male counterparts. But the COVID-19 crisis has put these gains at risk. There are multiple channels through which pandemics reduce girls’ access to education. Particularly in emerging and frontier markets, girls are now at an increased risk of dropping out of school, needing to provide healthcare for family members, engaging in child labor,  and facing early pregnancy—all of which reduce access to education. And since every 1 year of additional schooling increases a woman’s returns to education by 12%, fewer girls returning to school will create a lifelong drag on their earning potential—and therefore countries’ economic prospects more broadly.

Female policymakers are more likely to support policies that tackle these issues

While female policymakers come from across the political and ideological spectrum, multiple studies have shown that, as a whole, female policymakers prioritize different policies than do their male counterparts. Healthcare spending is a crucial policy that women legislators support. A study of Canadian provinces, for instance, shows that more women in government lead to greater public health outcomes. And education spending is another priority that female policymakers tend to support. Investment in both of these areas will be crucial to mitigating the negative public health and economic outcomes of the COVID-19 crisis—both throughout the rest of the pandemic and in the post-pandemic recovery period.

Challenge: All policymakers need to channel their inner female

As UN Global Compact CEO and Executive Director Sanda Ojiambo points out, the post-crisis recovery is a chance to address gender inequality. Indeed, EY’s Julie Linn Teigland argues that the world will not be able to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic in a sustainable and inclusive way without gender equality. To achieve this, ideally all countries would already have gender parity in political representation to direct greater policy attention to healthcare, education, and “women’s issues.” Or, taking inspiration from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, why stop at parity in representation? Why not aim for all countries to be led by women?

Until that happens, though, it is incumbent upon male policymakers to channel their inner female and work with their women colleagues to prioritize spending on healthcare and education—and to ensure stimulus and recovery policies are formulated with an explicitly gender lens. Only then will the challenge to not leave girls and women behind in the COVID-19 crisis be met.

The views expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily represent those of EY.