Acting for gender equality: evidence, gaps and prospects for real change in economic policy

Gender inequality in the access to the labour market and income distribution has increased as a consequence of the economic impacts of the global pandemic due to the higher presence of women employed in the economic sectors most vulnerable to lockdown and shutdown and with the least opportunity to continue to work remotely or from home. The risk of receiving lower income protection is higher for women due to their more discontinuous working profile and their higher presence in precarious jobs. Gender distribution of unpaid care and domestic work load is persistently unequal. Blindness on the gender impact of public policies designed in the emergence of first wave of the pandemic had the effect of deepening pre-existing gender inequalities showing that integration of gender analysis dissipates as the policy process develops leading to the evaporation of gender equality in economic policy making. Actions acknowledging the roots of gender inequalities together with the implementation of gender mainstreaming at all levels of economic policies are needed to revert this trend and to lead to a more gender equal society.