Globally, women are systematically excluded from decision-making on COVID-19 crisis response and recovery. Despite the gendered impact of the global crisis, and despite women’s leadership as frontline responders, women are left out of decision-making on crisis response and recovery at all levels. As a result, not enough governments have led gender-responsive measures to respond to the needs of women, young women, and girls. A report on women’s leadership in COVID-19 national task forces developed by CARE finds that on average, women make up only 24% of national-level committees established to respond to COVID-19. In several countries, there have been no government-led measures, funding or policy commitments for the specific needs of women. At the same time, female heads of state, from New Zealand, Belgium, Finland, Taiwan, and others, have received increased attention and recognition for their leadership and effective response to the pandemic.

At the local level, women’s contributions to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic are not systematically documented, and their diverse perspectives are overlooked – and therefore remain unrecognized and unsupported.

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