Women are most affected by pandemics — lessons from past outbreaks

Women are most affected by pandemics — lessons from past outbreaks

Past outbreaks show how to support women

In disease outbreaks, women bear the brunt of the social and economic effects. For example, during the Ebola outbreak of 2014–16, quarantines destroyed the livelihoods of market traders in Sierra Leone and Liberia, 85% of whom were women — and a far smaller proportion of women than men were back at work by the following year. Clare Wenham, who researches global health policy, and seven colleagues call for COVID-19 support and research tailored to women’s right to work, be free of domestic violence and access sexual- and reproductive-health care.

Nature | 13 min readReference: World Bank working paper