COVID-19 highlights need for feminist human rights approach to ensure socio-economic gender equality

Economics and human rights have never been close friends. Human rights advocates have rarely engaged with financial systems. Economists, in turn, seldom consider human rights principles. However, COVID-19 intensified the need for mutual cooperation to safeguard the most disadvantaged, particularly women, who have suffered disproportionate negative socio-economic impact from the pandemic, which accentuated female overrepresentation in frontline health and public sector employment as well as unpaid caring responsibilities. This article examines a series of UN reports and other research which contend that inherent economic gender bias and neoliberal financial austerity policies unduly damage women’s socio-economic rights. It recommends that human rights principles be combined with comprehensive feminist economic analysis in order to achieve gender equality and afford women more financial security in preparation for future crises.