Outbreaks affect men and women differently. This has been evident during Ebola, Zika, and cholera, but it has become acutely evident during COVID-19. Not only are women disproportionately represented as health care workers on the frontline, but they also are doubly burdened with the informal labor within homes as shelter in place orders are implemented and schools are closed. Beyond this, domestic violence rates have skyrocketed, and access to sexual reproductive health services have been altered and/or have ceased. These pose real risks to women’s safety and health. This seminar examined these gendered effects of COVID-19 and asks: where are the women? Are governments thinking about them, and if not, why not?
Clare Wenham, an assistant professor of global health policy at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was the seminar's featured speaker. She has been analyzing the downstream effects of global health security policy on women, with a forthcoming Oxford University Press book offering a feminist critique of the Zika outbreak in Latin America.
The Georgetown University Global Health Initiative (GHI) and Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security (GHSS) co-sponsored this event as part of the Global Health Security Seminar Series.
Featured
Clare Wenham is an assistant professor of global health policy at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She specializes in global health security and the politics and policy of pandemic preparedness and outbreak response, through analysis of influenza, Ebola, and Zika. Her work considers global health governance, role of WHO, national priorities, and innovative financing for pandemic control.
