In early July, world leaders addressed the United Nations Generation Equality Forum in Paris, reaffirming gender equality’s role in prosperity and stability as well as commemorating the landmark 1995 Beijing conference that enshrined women’s rights in international law. But two and a half decades later, not nearly enough has changed for women around the world, at least on the surface.
The coronavirus pandemic unmasked deeply rooted structural barriers to gender equality, widening persistent gender gaps. Women already saddled with an unequal caregiving burden saw their responsibilities multiply as schools and child care centers closed, giving them an extra 173 hours of unpaid work in the past year, on average—around three times more than men. These economic setbacks were worsened by increasing rates of intimate partner violence as many women sheltered at home with their abusers.
