Revealed: How COVID-19 restrictions, homeschooling, childcare are affecting women

Revealed: How COVID-19 restrictions, homeschooling, childcare are affecting women

Dubai: The global COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on women's livelihoods, with unpaid care work adding disproportionately to their burden, a hard-hitting global report released today, on the occasion of International Women's Day, has revealed. Speaking exclusively to Gulf News from Seattle ahead of its launch, Anita Zaidi, president of the US-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Gender Equality Division, which partnered with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to issue the report, said, "Globally, COVID-19 has exacerbated gender inequality. The pandemic has exposed a lack of recognition on how much the world's economy depends on women's unpaid labour. Women today are currently spending more than 30 hours per week on childcare, which is almost like a full-time job." She said, "This is something we want to call attention to, so that governments looking to build out of the crisis can address the issue." "The UAE has been a big part of global development conversation and has been participating in a lot of global partnerships in health and development. It has a deep interest in developing countries and a lot of its sectors are staffed from these countries. This is an opportunity to step up," she said, adding