Spotlight on the gendered impacts of COVID-19 in Australia: a gender matrix analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, beyond infection and fatality rates, can be seen across a range of broader social and economic issues including care overload, domestic violence, unemployment and job loss, and housing insecurity. On the whole, government public policy in response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has not adequately addressed or prevented the inevitable gender impacts that have emerged. To what extent did governments have ‘early warning’ of these impacts? Using a matrix methodology to shine a light on a range of COVID-related gender impacts in Australia, this article indicates how the impact of the pandemic was exacerbated by already existing unequal gendered power relations. Our findings, identifiable in real time through news media reports, reveal that these debilitating effects extended to other social identifier groups (for instance, elderly, ethnic minorities, disabled) who were similarly caught up in underlying uneven power relations and structures.