On the occasion of 2021 International Women’s Day on 8 March, a virtual roundtable Women in the era of the pandemic was hosted by the Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation.
The event focused on major challenges women have faced during the pandemic as a result of lockdowns and other methods of containing the spread of the virus, including increase in gender-based violence, unemployment and loss of careers, decline in mental health, and new barriers for accessing life-saving services, such as education and justice.
It gathered many prominent speakers among which Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, President of Greece, Andri Anastasiadis, First Lady of the Republic of Cyprus, Mareva Mitsotakis, spouse of the Prime Minister of Greece, Kerry Kennedy, President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health, Mona Keijzer, State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of The Netherlands, Maria Spyraki, Member of the European Parliaments and co-chair Intergroup for Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Maria Theofili, Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations, and Helena Ndume, 2015 Eye surgeon and UN Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize Winner.
They emphasized the need for unity in advancing gender equality and the essential role of women at the frontlines of the pandemic, with 70% of healthcare professional and researchers working on COVID-19 being women. The plethora of burdens that women have borne during the pandemic has been very heavy, including the increase of sexual and gender-based violence against women and inequalities in access to the labour market, the gender pay gap and the job loss, linked particularly to women’s occupation in the informal economy. The pandemic has had a regressive effect on gender equality with women undertaking more household responsibilities.
As the majority of these issues are systemic, and not isolated cases, all these challenges require a profound change. Women should be empowered to be effective participants in the recovery process. In addition, the importance of the MeToo movement for breaking a culture of silence that punishes the victims should not be neglected.
Let’s start by making gender equality mandatory, let’s call for mandatory quotas for women in key job positions. To counter gender bias and stereotypes, UNESCO will launch a global network of renowned women leaders and role models to support efforts towards gender-transformative change
On International Women’s Day, the participants advocated for the pandemic to serve as an opportunity to address longstanding inequalities in health care systems in our society that significantly affect women, including cancer prevention and care, and the reproductive rights of women fighting cancer. There is a need for women’s participation and increased diversity in the public and private sectors, and to focus on new social and community based enterprises with equal opportunity objectives.
Women are disproportionately affected in all crises, with COVID-19 as no exception, while they are the backbone of society and should be safeguarded and empowered.
The message on International Women’s Day was loud and clear: this situation needs to change!