International Women's Day 2021: COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge for gender equality

8 Mar 2021 12:45 PM

Tthe Commission recently published its 2021 report on gender equality in the EU, that shows the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women. The pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities between women and men in almost all areas of life, both in Europe and beyond, rolling back on the hard-won achievements of past years. At the same time, gender equality has never been so high up on the EU's political agenda, and the Commission has made significant efforts to implement the Gender Equality Strategy, adopted one year ago. To better monitor and track progress in each of the 27 Member States, the Commission launched a Gender Equality Strategy Monitoring Portal.

Vice-President for Values and Transparency, VÄ›ra Jourová, recently said:

“Women are at the frontline at the pandemic and they are more affected by it. We can't afford sliding back; we must continue to push for fairness and equality. This is why EU has put women at the heart of recovery and obliged Member States to include gender equality in investments funded from Recovery and Resilience Facility.”

Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, added:

“Despite the disproportionate impact on women's live due the COVID-19 crisis, we need to use this situation as an opportunity. We are determined to strengthen our efforts, continue progressing and not allow a backlash on all the gender equality gains made”.

COVID-19 impact on women

The recent report highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a major challenge for gender equality:

Despite the challenges arising from the COVID-19 crisis, the Commission made significant efforts to move forward with the implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy over the past year. In order to track progress more effectively across the EU, the Commission recently launched the Gender Equality Strategy Monitoring Portal. A joint project developed by the Commission's Joint Research Centre and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), the portal will allow to monitor individual EU Member States' performance and compare that performance among the 27 Member States.

Click here for the full press release