Women Through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges, Consequences, and Resilience

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented event in contemporary history, with far-reaching repercussions for the global economy and society. This article examines the economic challenges and consequences of this pandemic for women. It further explores the pandemic effects on women’s health and well-being, exacerbated by the limited access to basic healthcare and mental health resources, and it points out the challenges facing women in frontline occupations (namely, healthcare). This article also highlights the alarming surge in domestic violence and abuse against women during the pandemic, aggravated by lockdown measures and isolation from support networks. In addition, this article discusses various social and political implications of this pandemic for women, and it reveals how women demonstrated significant resilience over the pandemic-related struggles. The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to persist in the post-pandemic era as they intersect with ongoing social and economic transformations and new events/crises. At this point, it remains to be determined to what extent this pandemic has decelerated (or even reversed) the progress that was made over the past few decades in terms of reducing gender inequality and enhancing women’s social status, and to what degree women’s resilience in the face of this pandemic has mitigated its adverse effects on their economic opportunities and social positions. Nevertheless, this article aims to provide a reference for governments, women’s organizations, and policymakers in assessing the implications of this pandemic for women and in designing sustained and targeted measures to support women vis-à-vis future crises.