How the COVID-19 global pandemic further jeopardized women's health, mental well-being, and safety: Intersectionality framework and social policy action

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately endangered women's health, well-being and safety. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 7 million people worldwide have died from the virus by May 2023. While COVID-19 posed an immediate threat to the lives of people around the world, the interconnections of gender, race, ethnicity, and class resulted in differential consequences of the global pandemic. With a focus on intersecting identities, this special issue explores how women became more vulnerable during the pandemic and suggest what policies and interventions would work to buffer against such risks. In this issue, authors use empirical, review, and policy implication work to demonstrate how women, particularly those with other minoritized intersecting identities, were impacted by COVID-19. The authors of this special issue examine the impacts of COVID-19 on women's physical, emotional, and reproductive health, along with issues of safety. The unique role that women play in mothering and caretaking, within their homes, workplaces, and communities, means that this endangerment has widespread and potentially intergenerational impacts. Moreover, it is clear that empirically-driven social policy and resource responses are crucial.