III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 95 

Recognizing the disproportionate impact of COVID–19 on women and girls 

globally. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 4, 2021 

Mr. BOOKER (for himself, Mrs. MURRAY, and Mr. WYDEN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the disproportionate impact of COVID–19 on 

women and girls globally. 

Whereas the COVID–19 crisis exacerbates existing vulnerabilities for women and girls and has an outsized effect on 

health, safety, and livelihoods for marginalized communities; 

Whereas it is estimated that the disruption of sexual and reproductive health care services and supply chains caused 

by the COVID–19 crisis caused an estimated 49,000,000 

women to stop using contraceptives during just the first 

6 months of the crisis, likely resulting in approximately 

7,000,000 unintended pregnancies, 1,700,000 major obstetric complications, 28,000 maternal deaths, 168,000 

newborn deaths, and 3,300,000 unsafe abortions; 


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Whereas lockdowns, quarantines, and other movement restrictions related to COVID–19 have disrupted access to legal 

and social services, as well as access to counseling, safe 

shelters, and medical treatment, exacerbating vulnerabilities for women and girls; 

Whereas gender-based violence, such as domestic violence, 

child marriage, and female genital mutilation, has increased, and is expected to continue to increase, as a result of the COVID–19 crisis, including— 

(1) an estimated 31,000,000 more gender-based violence cases during the first 6 months of shutdowns; 

(2) an additional 13,000,000 child marriages by 

2030; and 

(3) an increase of approximately 2,000,000 cases of 

female genital mutilation between 2020 and 2030; 

Whereas women play significant roles in the health care 

workforce, comprising 70 percent of health care workers 

globally, yet often are not prioritized for the receipt of 

personal protective equipment, disproportionately exposing them to contracting COVID–19; 

Whereas women and girls perform 3 times the amount of unpaid care work in homes and in their communities as 

men, a burden that has increased during the COVID–19 

crisis as women and girls are disproportionately responsible for caring for sick and elderly family and community members and children who are out of school, limiting 

the ability of women and girls to perform income-generating work, pursue education or skills building, or avoid 

exposure to COVID–19; 

Whereas, globally, women living in poverty will endure specific economic effects as a result of the COVID–19 crisis, 

largely due to the overrepresentation of those women in 


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the informal economy, the increase in their unpaid care 

burdens, and the particular hardships facing female entrepreneurs, such as— 

(1) loss of jobs or pressure to turn to exploitative 

work, as women workers dominate in industries most affected by layoffs caused by the COVID–19 crisis, including hospitality, childcare, and tourism, and comprise 92 

percent of individuals in the informal sector, which lacks 

social and legal protections in most countries; 

(2) loss of business, as market closures, disruptions 

in global trading, and the collapse of supply chains have 

disproportionate effects on female-led businesses and female farmers, and enduring gaps in financial inclusion 

will have significant ramifications as women entrepreneurs continue to be considered high risk for bank 

services, formal loans, and credit; 

(3) financial insecurity, as women have much lower, 

if any, pensions, retirement savings, or other assets to 

mitigate shocks as compared to men; and 

(4) loss of necessary income that female-headed 

households depend on, such as remittances, which the 

World Bank expects will decrease by nearly 20 percent in 

2020; 

Whereas the COVID–19 crisis will uniquely affect women in 

agriculture, who provide more than 43 percent of the agricultural labor around the world and more than 60 percent of such labor in Africa yet whose ability to harvest, 

sell, and buy food and other products necessary for their 

food security and nutrition will worsen due to travel restrictions related to the crisis, ongoing discrimination in 

access to agricultural inputs and markets, and wage gaps 

and disproportionate unpaid care burdens for female 

farmers; 


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Whereas food insecurity will have unique effects on the nutrition and health of women and girls, who already comprise 

60 percent of individuals experiencing hunger in the 

world, often rely on getting at least 1 nutritious meal 

each day from feeding programs at schools that may be 

shut down due to the COVID–19 crisis, and face shortages in nutritious food and nutrients given social norms 

that dictate that women and girls eat last and least when 

food is scarce; 

Whereas girls, particularly adolescent girls, will be especially 

affected by the closures of schools resulting from the 

COVID–19 crisis, and it is estimated that, as of March 

2020, nearly 743,000,000 girls, not including the approximately 132,000,000 girls who were already out of 

school before the onset of the crisis, are out of school due 

to such closures, and an additional 11,000,000 girls may 

leave school by the end of the COVID–19 crisis, with evidence suggesting that many will not return to school; 

Whereas closures of schools due to the COVID–19 crisis will 

decrease the ability of girls to access education and skills 

building, increase the exposure of girls to gender-based 

violence, such as child marriage, exacerbate the vulnerability of girls to early pregnancy and childbirth-related 

complications, and impede access of girls to information 

about the prevention of COVID–19, protection services, 

and pathways to report abuse; 

Whereas the COVID–19 crisis will place particular burdens 

on women and girls in humanitarian emergencies given 

challenges including overcrowded conditions, restrictions 

on travel and movement, already strained health, hygiene, 

and sanitation infrastructure, food shortages and malnutrition, already heightened exposure to gender-based 


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violence, systematic and targeted attacks on health infrastructure and aid workers by parties to conflicts, 

politicization of aid and service delivery, and restricted 

humanitarian access, all of which exacerbates the spread 

and effect of infectious diseases; 

Whereas the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 

(UNODC), the International Organization for Migration 

(IOM), and the Department of State have expressed concern about an increase in human trafficking and smuggling as traffickers take advantage of increased vulnerabilities and chaos during the COVID–19 crisis; 

Whereas the diversion of resources and services away from 

existing primary health care needs to address the 

COVID–19 crisis and contain the spread of COVID–19 

will have particular effects on women and girls, including 

disruptions in the provision of life-saving health services 

unrelated to COVID–19, such as maternal health care 

and sexual and reproductive health services, and the loss 

of critical services and support to respond to genderbased violence; 

Whereas the COVID–19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan 

coordinated by the United Nations is only 17 percent 

funded, leaving significant gaps in the response to immediate health and non-health needs of women and girls 

and other vulnerable populations, and ongoing humanitarian response plans, identified as a top priority by the 

United Nations given that people targeted in those plans 

will be the most affected by the direct and indirect effects 

of the COVID–19 crisis, remain only 17.3 percent funded; 

Whereas estimates show that, globally, women are included in 

only 24 percent of national response plans for the 


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COVID–19 crisis, and women and girls have been largely 

excluded from leadership and decision making related to 

responses to the crisis, resulting in response measures 

that may not fully account for how COVID–19 affects 

women and girls; 

Whereas studies show that structural gender inequities, including low social status and unequal access to education, 

and lack of autonomous decision-making power negatively 

affects the ability of women to access vaccines for themselves and their children; and 

Whereas humanitarian exemptions to sanctions and counterterrorism measures are vital for ensuring states and principled humanitarian actors are able to reach vulnerable 

women and girls with efficient, needs-based assistance, 

including COVID–19 response activities consistent with 

obligations under international humanitarian law, regardless of the location of those women and girls: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) reaffirms the critical importance of gender 

3 balance and inclusivity in bodies responsible for co4 ordination and decision making related to the 

5 COVID–19 crisis, including in structures and task 

6 forces of the United States Government charged 

7 with developing policies and responses to the crisis; 

8 (2) promotes integrating a gender lens through9 out the response to the COVID–19 crisis by ana10 lyzing and tracking the effect of and response to the 

11 crisis on gender, including gathering evidence from 


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1 data that is disaggregated by gender, age, and other 

2 specific variables; 

3 (3) supports measures to ensure that life-saving 

4 health services including sexual and reproductive 

5 health and gender-based violence prevention and re6 sponse are well resourced and supported, including 

7 within the COVID–19 Global Humanitarian Re8 sponse Plan coordinated by the United Nations, and 

9 that funding earmarked for those services is not re10 duced, canceled, or diverted to other COVID–19 re11 sponse activities; 

12 (4) supports measures to ensure the continu13 ation of adequate food and nutrition security for 

14 women and girls around the world affected by 

15 COVID–19, including women smallholder farmers 

16 and other women working in agriculture, in light of 

17 the unique challenges described in the preamble of 

18 this resolution; 

19 (5) reinforces the need to ensure that short20 term relief programming and longer-term economic 

21 strategies address the specific effects of COVID–19 

22 on women globally, especially lower income, migrant, 

23 displaced, and other marginalized women; 

24 (6) commends the executive branch for— 


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1 (A) rescinding the global gag rule, also 

2 known as the Mexico City Policy, which has 

3 been shown to lead to poorer health outcomes 

4 for women; 

5 (B) resuming support for the United Na6 tions Population Fund (UNFPA); and 

7 (C) clearly stating the executive branch’s 

8 policy of supporting sexual and reproductive 

9 health and rights around the world; 

10 (7) urges the executive branch to uphold the 

11 rights of crisis-affected and forcibly displaced popu12 lations, including women and girls, further affected 

13 by COVID–19, by promoting compliance with inter14 national humanitarian and human rights legal obli15 gations and engaging parties to conflicts to ensure 

16 unhindered access to health care, medical supplies, 

17 and other vital aid and protection; 

18 (8) supports robust funding contributions by 

19 the United States for the international response to 

20 the COVID–19 crisis in addition to further funding 

21 for ongoing humanitarian appeals in support of vul22 nerable women and girls affected by COVID–19 and 

23 underlying emergencies; 


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1 (9) commits to continuously assess and elimi2 nate any impediment to the delivery of and access 

3 to humanitarian assistance; 

4 (10) urges the executive branch— 

5 (A) to reaffirm United States leadership 

6 on gender-based violence in foreign assistance, 

7 including by championing and providing com8 prehensive mental and physical health care 

9 services for survivors; and 

10 (B) to reestablish leadership and global 

11 standing on this critical issue; and 

12 (11) urges the executive branch to address bar13 riers to equitable COVID–19 treatment and vaccine 

14 access for women, girls, and marginalized commu15 nities as part of a holistic response to the global 

16 COVID–19 pandemic. 

Æ 


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