 Gender and the politics of pandemic responseJulia Smith Chapter 52 in Handbook on Gender in World Politics, 2026, pp 345-350 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: This chapter analyzes how political choices during pandemics disproportionately harm women and gender minorities. It argues that emergency responses, often prioritizing technical solutions over equity, exacerbate existing gender inequalities. The analysis focuses on three key areas: the gendered division of labor, access to healthcare and gender-based violence (GBV). Pandemic policies frequently increase women's unpaid care burden, disrupt feminized employment sectors and limit access to essential services like sexual, reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare. Furthermore, crises often correlate with a rise in GBV, while support systems are simultaneously reduced. Although the COVID-19 pandemic saw unprecedented attention to these gendered effects, this has not translated into sustained, transformative change in global pandemic preparedness and response frameworks. The author concludes that these negative outcomes are not inevitable but are the result of political choices that continue to devalue and exploit gendered labor and ignore the specific needs of marginalized groups. Keywords: Pandemics; Gender; Global Health Security; Care Work; Gender-based Violence (GBV) (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:21594_52 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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