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ACTION BRIEF

GUIDANCE FOR ACTION:GENDER-SENSITIVE PRIVATESECTOR RESPONSE TO COVID-19
FOR ACCELERATED AND INCLUSIVEECONOMIC RECOVERYBACKGROUND
Declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
has affected nearly every country in the world.1 As nations implement rigid measures to contain the
spread of the virus, economies worldwide have been disrupted and companies are challenged in providing
safety and security to their employees while maintaining business continuity. Just as women have beendisproportionately affected in previous pandemics,2 COVID-19 is already having major, differentiated impacts
on women. The private sector not only has a responsibility to protect the rights of all its employees andworkers, but also directly benefits by doing so. The current crisis presents a key opportunity for companies
to support women across their entire value chains and become leaders in providing a gender-inclusive
COVID-19 response and recovery.
Major economic institutions are warning that the COVID-19 outbreak could lead to a global recession.3
Existing gendered economic inequalities in the Asia-Pacific region leave women particularly vulnerable tothe potential effects of such a recession. Major economies in the region, including China, India, Indonesia,
Thailand and Viet Nam, are all experiencing declines in female labour force participation rates,4 and thenumber of women in leadership positions in business has decreased in several Asia-Pacific countries in thepast 30 years.5 As this guidance note explains, if COVID-19 response and recovery plans do not integrate agender lens, these regressions may be exacerbated and lead to losses not only for businesses but also for
economies across the region.
1

COVID-19 IMPACTS ON WOMEN IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Companies must recognize that COVID-19 impacts
everyone - CEOs, managers, employees, and workers- in personal and professional ways, and that thislooks different for women and men. Existing socialand economic gender inequalities and challenges for
women are aggravated by the current crisis, which
requires that companies become more genderresponsive in their response. If companies do notact on this, there is a serious risk of further reducing
female labour force participation and losing recent
gains made in women’s equal economic participation.
For example, women represent only 14.4 percent ofchief executives in Asia.10 If the numbers decrease
as a result of the pandemic, there will be fewer
women in positions of power, which means fewer
women at decision-making tables during crises that
disproportionately affect women, and a possible
thinning of the pipeline for women to move into
future management and leadership roles.
While the bulk of initial economic projections make nomention of gendered impacts,11 preliminary analysis
shows that COVID-19 is affecting women in businessin several differentiated ways.

Women’s care burden increased: Women and girls in the Asia-Pacificregion spend up to 11 times more of the day than men and boys doing
unpaid care work.12 With school closures leaving more than 700 million
children in the region in need of care,13 women are primarily responsible
for accommodating this increased burden in childcare.

Accelerated reliance on technology-oriented jobs risks leaving women
behind: The current crisis is accelerating the use of technology for work andhighlighting the central role technology will play to future of work trends.
In the Asia-Pacific region the digital gender gap has been growing wider
since 2013,14 meaning women are at increased risk of being excluded fromemerging opportunities. This risk of exclusion is aggravated by the fact thatwomen are disproportionately represented in jobs that cannot be done
remotely, such as care, hospitality and service industries.

xxx

190 million
women
at risk

Women in global supply chains are at risk: There are an estimated
190 million women working in global supply chains15 and put at risk oflosing their livelihoods and ability to support their families. The drop in
global production demand has already left thousands of factory workers
unemployed.16
Increased risk of domestic violence: More women are at home due to
COVID-19, and data overwhelmingly confirms an increase in domestic
violence during times of humanitarian crisis.17 In addition being a severe
human rights violation that brings significant negative consequences on
women’s health and well-being, research shows that businesses andeconomies also suffer. For instance, a study conducted in China foundthat survivors of domestic violence missed and average of 15 workdays,
took 11 days of personal leave, and/or arrived late or left early from work
five times over a 12-month period.18
2

KEY EMERGING ISSUES FOR WOMEN
1. Increased care work
	Women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region
spend as much as 11 times more of their day
than men and boys doing unpaid home carework.19 With school closures leaving morethan 700 million children in the region in needof care,20 women are primarily responsible
for accommodating this increased burden inchildcare. Further, when health systems areoverloaded, women usually bear responsibility
for caring for ill children and the elderly.21 The
COVID-19 crisis is significantly increasing thedemands of care duties on women’s time.
		
Women in Asia earn on average 15 percent
less than men,22 making it more likely that one
reason women will stay home with children isto enable their higher-earning male partners’
to continue working, but putting their own job
and income security at risk. Anecdotal evidence
is already confirming this trend.23
 s school closures continue, many womenA
will likely be forced to limit working hours
or give up their jobs,24 which could worsen
the current decline of female labour force
participation in the region. Companies thathave made commitments to promote womenin leadership roles may find that many promisingfemale candidates choose or are forced to stepback from work during this time to care for theirfamily. In the long term, this may widen verticalgender gaps as managers and those in charge ofpromotions privilege employees who continued
working at full capacity during the pandemic.
	Women are more heavily concentrated in direct
service jobs that cannot be done remotely,
meaning women who have no other choicethan to stay home to care for children are
vulnerable to losing their jobs.

What does this mean for business?

Female employees and workers will have lesstime and attention for paid work, as they work
to balance educating and caring for their children
full-time and caring for elderly and sick family
members. The increase in women’s care burden
as a result of COVID-19 could leave female
employees and workers with no option otherthan to cut back their hours or quit entirely.

2. Women are overrepresented in hardesthit sectors and disadvantaged by thedigital gender divide omen are disproportionately concentratedW
in sectors hardest hit economically by theoutbreak, such as manufacturing, tourism
and hospitality, retail and service industries.25
As city-wide lockdowns demand the closureof many direct service jobs that cannot bedone remotely, such as masseurs, cleanersand hairdressers, women are at a muchhigher risk of unemployment than men. In
China, mass job losses in these sectors havealready started.26
	Women are disadvantaged in emerging techoriented work modalities. The current shift
in working trends and new demands createdby the constraints of the crisis indicate thatpeople with access to technology and skilled
in digital work modalities will be mostly likely
to maintain or re-establish financial security.
There is a real risk of women falling behindand being excluded from new opportunities
created. Research has shown that women’stime constraints due to household duties, lackof technological education, lack of access todevices, and traumatizing cyber harassment
can prevent them from becoming as proficientin information and communication technology(ICT) as men.27 In the Asia-Pacific region thedigital gender gap has actually been growing
wider since 2013.28

3	Future-of-work trends that leave women
behind are being accelerated by the crisis.
Where available, technology is alreadyproviding solutions to the constraints on
daily life caused by COVID-19 (through online
learning, remote working, and home delivery
services), and the crisis puts into clear focus
how important technology sectors will be to
future economic recovery and private sector
resilience against shocks. Women are alreadydrastically underrepresented in technology
sectors, such as fintech, e-commerce, and techenterprises. On top of this, future-of-work
trends such as automation and digitalizationpose a disproportionate threat to jobs done by
women.29 Unless swift and large-scale actions
are taken to upskill women in ICT and create
pathways for integration into technology
sectors, many women will be left behind.30

What does this mean for business?

Although many jobs in the hardest-hit sectors
will likely return after the crisis, full recovery
will take time and the extended loss of work
may have spiralled many already vulnerable
women into poverty, which will impede
broader economic recovery. Further, womenare already underrepresented in technology
and even if women have the technologicalskills to capitalize on technology-driven
opportunities for business, women haveless access to the capital, skills and networks
needed to successfully open a business.31
This also harms long-term economic progress,
as women-owned businesses are less likely todefault on loans and more likely to reinvest
earnings in ways that boost local economies.32

3. Increased vulnerability of women insupply chains	Many larger companies indirectly employ(through their suppliers) many women,
including migrant workers and women working
in micro, small and medium enterprises(MSMEs) such as farmers and micro-retailers.
These are part of the production and delivery of
goods and services across entire value chains,33
but are unlikely to be counted as official
employees in company-wide responses to acrisis. Due to the lack of gender-disaggregateddata, a complete picture of the distribution ofmale and female workers is not available, butthere are an estimated 190 million women
working in global supply chains, and women
represent 70-90 percent of workers in theapparel industry.34
 s COVID-19 has caused a major slowdown
Aof global consumption and production,
SMEs (especially those supplying to larger
companies) are hit particularly hard relative totheir small size and limited cash reserves. In a
survey conducted in China, 85 percent of SMEs
surveyed indicated that cash imbalances due
to COVID-19 would cause them to go bankrupt
within three months.35 These potential closureswould not only lead to unemployment for
the women who make up the majority of the
SME workforce, but are more likely to impact
women-owned SMEs, which are less resilientto the impact of adverse economic shocks.36
	Men are overrepresented in permanent or longterm work and women are overrepresented
in low-skilled, low-wage jobs at the base oflarger supply chains, such as garment factory
workers. These jobs typically offer less accessto pensions, health benefits, unemployment
benefits and other social protection. Now they
are also among those being lost as global tradeslows and companies cancel orders and reroute
production to minimize losses, placing alreadyvulnerable women at increased risk of falling
into poverty.37 In Myanmar alone, more than
10,000 garment factory workers have lost theirjobs as factories begin to shut down due to raw
material shortages.38

4	There is also research showing that short leadtimes and unrealistic production targets, allissues that we are likely to see as the situation
continues to evolve, increase rates of sexual
harassment and violence in the workplace,as well as health concerns, particularly for
pregnant women workers. 39 Research in
Cambodia indicates that high staff turnover,absenteeism and reduced productivity related
to sexual harassment represent a cost of USD
89 million per year for the garment industry.40

4. Increased risk of domestic violence
when home becomes the workplace	When households are placed under strain,
the risk of domestic violence increases.
Initial evidence shows that the quarantine
and lockdown measures put in place tocombat COVID-19 are likely driving similar
trends.41,42 In China, where millions of people
are spending time indoors, there has been an
alarming surge in reports of domestic violence.
In January, some police stations received
double the number of reports compared tothe same period last year.43
	For many survivors of domestic violence, work
provides respite from the unpredictability ofabuse, and there can be more immediate
danger inside the home than outside it.44
In addition to increased chances of violenceoccurring during COVID-related lockdowns,
life-saving care and support services tosurvivors may be disrupted as health systems
are overburdened.

What does this mean for business?

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Violence not only has a profoundly negative
impact on the physical and mental healthand well-being of many female employees
and workers, but also hampers workplace
productivity by increasing absenteeism,
employee turnover and resignations without
adequate notice.45 A study conducted in Viet
Nam estimated overall productivity losses due
to domestic violence represent up to 3 percent
of GDP, roughly USD 337 million.46 As moreprivate-sector companies are forced to halt
operations or switch to working from home
this increased risk of domestic violence poses
an additional threat to business continuity andto recovery and long-term economic growth.

5KEY RECOMMENDATIONSFOR THE PRIVATESECTOR

A commitment to a gender-responsive COVID-19 response becomes
indispensable for an inclusive economic recovery. Through the Women’s
Empowerment Principles (WEPs),47 UN Women and UN Global Compact
have a clear approach on how businesses can build gender-inclusive businessenvironments across their value chains from leadership, workplaces,
marketplaces and community.
LEADERSHIP	Publicly commit to taking a gender-inclusive stance in your response
and recovery strategy and make this visible by signing the WEPs andbecoming part of a WEPs community of practice and exchange networkthat includes nearly 3,000 companies worldwide of which more than
700 are in the Asia-Pacific region.
	Ensure women have a voice in all decision-making processes. Embed
gender dimensions into company-wide response plans and budget
resources to build gender expertise into decision-making teams.
	Take proactive measures to provide specific support for women managers
and directors and support the development of pipelines for womenmanagers and leaders.
	
Conduct data collection (disaggregated by sex, age and disability) tounderstand how the crisis is impacting workers differently and how best to
provide support. Raise awareness among senior leadership and managers
to ensure they are aware of the different impacts and implement responseplans accordingly.
	
Invest in disaster risk reduction for business and workers’ resilience
following international standards, such as those specified for privatesector actors48 in the Sendai International Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction 2015-2030.49
WORKPLACES
Support for direct employees	
Encourage all employees, especially men, to share domestic care work
equally through targeted employee engagement and creative initiatives,
such as example-setting practices by male managers.
	Provide flexible working arrangements and/or extra paid leave days for
women and men forced to take time off for home childcare or taking careof elders or sick family members.
	Provide paid sick leave and ensure no wage penalties for workers who
contract COVID-19 or are required to self-quarantine, particularly for
women at the base of supply chains who are unlikely to have social
protection and insurance.
	Take active measures to protect the health and safety of women and men
employees, such as providing hygiene and personal protective equipment,
relevant information and knowledge, and psychological support.

6	
Ensure employees, especially those working from home, have quick andreliable access to support mechanisms, such as guidance from humanresources and ICT assistance.
	Share information with employees on where to report and seek help fordomestic violence, including national and local hotlines and services withtrained responders.
MARKETPLACES
Support for your suppliers and the women they employ
	Apply a holistic eco-system approach that assesses the company’s supply
chain end-to-end. Engage with suppliers across the chain to understandwhat support is most critical to them. Be proactive in finding ways tocontinue business relationships, by for example shortened payment terms
for smaller suppliers,50 whilst also holding suppliers accountable to takegender-sensitive measures themselves.
	
Find ways to support suppliers’ employees, especially women, toavoid them having to carry the financial burden during and after the
pandemic. For example, provide emergency basic income and/or conduct
upskilling training for women who may be out of work due to COVID-19
related closures.
	
Engage with the International Labour Organization, trade unions, industry
associations, and other stakeholders to find solutions to support yoursuppliers in the short term, and plan for post-crisis production timelines.
COMMUNITY AND TRANSPARENCY	
Provide resources to local organizations supporting women who havebeen impacted by COVID-19, such as those providing domestic violenceservices or ICT training programmes.
	Conduct impact assessments with data disaggregated by sex, age anddisability and make reports publicly available.
	
Share data, lessons learned and best practices to industry-wide peers
to advocate and hold others accountable for more gender-inclusive
business practices.

	
Consult experts and apply a gender lens to all response, relief and recovery
plans and new policies.
	
Develop mitigation strategies that specifically target the economic impactof the outbreak on women and build women’s resilience:

FOR GOVERNMENTS• Aim economic support and bail-outs specifically at retail sectors,
hospitality and businesses, where women are predominantly employedin precarious contracts and most vulnerable to forced cost-saving.
• Explore ways to provide tax exemptions, debt relief or loans with special
interest rates as an incentive for employers to support their workers
with paid sick leave and guaranteed basic income during COVID-related
shutdowns.
7	
Invest in gender-sensitive recovery programmes for SMEs, but equally
support female workers with financial assistance, such as unconditional
cash transfers, as well as through large-scale upskilling programmes toequip women for a technology-enabled economy.
	Prioritize adequate investments in universal social protection systems
and quality, affordable childcare.
	Address the unequal share of care responsibilities in a systemic way:
Immediate action requires developing advocacy tools and conducting
outreach campaigns to encourage families to share care work whilst
investing in long-term cross-sectoral approaches for sustained change.
	Prioritize services for prevention and response to gender-based violencein communities and households affected by COVID-19.

	
Support women’s rights organizations who are key players in providing
services for women and advocating for government regulations and laws
for gender equality and women’s rights.

FOR DONORS	Provide funding for initiatives that aim to decrease workers’ vulnerability
in supply chains, such as upskilling programmes, that can be rolled out
and scaled up through partnerships with private sector actors.

	Spotlight and strengthen efforts to address women’s unpaid carework by providing funding across multiple pathways for change:
support and advocacy for government policies for universal childand other types of care, outreach and advocacy with women’s
rights organizations, new programmes to redistribute unpaid carework within households, and innovative market-oriented andemployer-supported solutions to care work.

FOR CIVIL SOCIETY
ORGANIZATIONSAND UNIONS	Engage in advocacy efforts to influence companies and governments
to pay special attention in their recovery efforts to the most vulnerable
employees and workers in supply chains, especially women, and offer
collaboration on immediate support delivery.
	Monitor public and private sector implementation of gender-inclusive
COVID-19 response, publicly report on progress, and use results toadvocate for change.
	Work with corporations and employers to strengthen protection for theirworkers and employees, especially women, with guarantees for paid sickleave, wage protections, and other measures to mitigate the fallout of
COVID-19 and strengthen preparedness for future economic instability.

8https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/GHO2019.pdf
3
McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business; Bloomberg Economics: https://www.
bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-coronavirus-pandemic-global-economic-risk/; IMF: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/17/head-of-imfsays-global-economy-risks-return-of-great-depression ; World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/03/17/world-bank-groupincreases-covid-19-response-to-14-billion-to-help-sustain-economies-protect-jobs)
4
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.ACTI.FE.ZS?locations=Z4
5
Women in Business and Management: The business case for change. ACT/ WMP, ILO 2019.
6
Korn Ferry Gender Pay Index 2018, https://hrmasia.com/two-cents-mind-the-gender-pay-gap/
7	Unrealized Potential: The High Cost of Gender Inequality in Earning. Quentin Wodon and Benedicte de la Briere. The Cost of Gender Inequality, The
World Bank. May 2018.
8
World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO): Trends for Women 2017. ILO, Geneva.
9
Women in Business and Management: The business case for change. ACT/ WMP, ILO 2019.
10https://hrmasia.com/two-cents-mind-the-gender-pay-gap/
11
Analysis of references listed in Footnote 4
12Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank and UN Women, 201813https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavirus-school-closures
14
https://itu.foleon.com/itu/measuring-digital-development/gender-gap/
15
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_51129_WP_Global_Value_Chain_Policy_Series_Gender_report_2018.pdf
16https://www.mmtimes.com/news/least-10000-now-unemployed-yangon-garment-sector.html
17	https://www.ifrc.org/Global/Documents/Secretariat/201511/1297700_GBV_in_Disasters_EN_LR2.pdf; https://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/
field%20office%20eseasia/docs/publications/2020/03/ap-giha-wg-advocacy.pdf?la=en&vs=2145
18
	Ending Violence is our Business: Workplace Responses to Intimate Partner Violence in Asia and the Pacific, UN Women, November 201919
Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank and UN Women, 201820
https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavirus-school-closures21
	Harman, Sophie (2015). Ebola, gender and conspicuously invisible women in global health governance. Third World Quarterly 37(3).
22Korn Ferry Gender Pay Index 2018, https://hrmasia.com/two-cents-mind-the-gender-pay-gap/
23
	https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51705199?fbclid=IwAR0-Jzvsu051JeHrXZz6I-2mYvru75_bZtGMSKYPIHeZnwG2Zqx1lyFThek; https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/japanese-mothers-struggle-to-cope-after-virus-shuts-schools/
24
https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/vietnam-sharply-divided-coronavirus-school-closures
25
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/human-rights-dimensions-covid-19-response#_Toc35446584
26
UN Women China, March 202027
https://www.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/APAC-Issue-Papers-Gender_0.pdf
28
https://itu.foleon.com/itu/measuring-digital-development/gender-gap/
29
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/women-reskilling-revolution-future-of-work/30
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/women-reskilling-revolution-future-of-work/
31	https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/publication/female-entrepreneurship-resource-point-introduction-and-module-1-why-gender-matters
32
https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/ESCAP-FWE-ASEAN-full_0.pdf
33	See Coca-Cola’s STAR program for female micro-entrepreneurs in the Philippines; http://www.coca-cola.com.ph/en/sustainability/women/the-economics/
34
	http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_51129_WP_Global_Value_Chain_Policy_Series_Gender_report_2018.pdf
35	Survey conducted by Tsinghua University and Peking University; https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-COVID-19-managing-cash-flow-in-crisis.pdf
36
https://www.oecd.org/southeast-asia/regional-programme/Strengthening_Womens_Entrepreneurship_ASEAN.pdf
37
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/19/garment-workers-face-destitution-as-covid-19-closes-factories
38
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/least-10000-now-unemployed-yangon-garment-sector.html
39
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/wrd0419_web2.pdf
40
https://insights.careinternational.org.uk/media/k2/attachments/SHCS_Full_Technical_Report_March_2017.pdf
41
	IASC (2015). Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action: Food Security and Agriculture.
42
	UNGA A/70/723. Protecting Humanity from Future Health Crises: Report of the High Level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crises.
43
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005253/domestic-violence-cases-surge-during-covid-19-epidemic
44	Ending Violence is our Business: Workplace Responses to Intimate Partner Violence in Asia and the Pacific, UN Women, November 201945
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/ianwge2012/Executive-Summary-EGM-GBV-Workplace-Feb-21.pdf
46
	https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2013/2/estimating-the-cost-of-domestic-violence-against-women-in-viet-nam
47
https://www.weps.org/
48
	https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2590061719300201?token=7CA0991374C2AE962E0786E4649BF8B216FDDCF54AF6C75415EDBFD6DAC543C55899BDB043EE04A045FF0FE036A9D257
49https://www.undrr.org/publication/sendai-framework-disaster-risk-reduction-2015-2030
50
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-COVID-19-managing-cash-flow-in-crisis.pdf
1
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Contact:
UN Women Regional Office for
Asia and the PacificUnited Nations Building, 5th Floor. Rajdamnern Nok
Avenue, Bangkok 10200 THAILAND.
Tel: +66 2 288 2093
Fax: +66 2 280 6030

Learn more about the Women’s
Empowerment Principles (WEPs):

www.weps.org

With the support of