Intersectionality as a lens to the COVID-19 pandemic: implications for sexual and reproductive health in development and humanitarian contexts

The role of gender inclusive leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic to support vulnerable populations in conflict settings

“…36 Intersectional analysis places power at the centre and takes a broad approach to conceptualising how power hierarchies and systemic inequalities shape an individual’s life experience, thereby recognising that intersecting oppressions shape the experiences of individuals. 37 As outlined earlier, it is clear that these intersecting oppressions are heightened in conflict settings. Therefore, feminist approaches to leadership should include an intersectional approach.…”

Axes of alienation: applying an intersectional lens on the social contract during the pandemic response to protect sexual and reproductive rights and health

“…While economic inequalities have been a key focus of attention, gendered relations of power at every level have undermined health rights of women, girls and gender diverse individuals. Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have always been sites of power contestations within families, societies, cultures, and politics; these struggles are exacerbated by economic, racial, religious, caste, citizenship status, and other social inequities, especially in times of crisis [2]. In keeping with this recognition that axes of inequality influence who gets exposed, who gets sick, and who gets good health care, in this Commentary, we propose the use of an intersectional lens to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social contract, particularly as related to SRHR.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic further exposes gaps in public health response, revealing how health systems lacked the resilience to weather the shock without significant losses in SRHR services. The impact that COVID-19 is having on SRH services and their availability, accessibility, and quality has been widely discussed in the context of the health sector [2,[9][10][11][12]. Logistical drivers, such as unstable supply chain and stockouts of commodities, limitations on movement and added burdens on the health workforce and health facilities mean people may not obtain the critical services they need, potentially impacting maternal morbidity and mortality, among other SRHR health outcomes [13,14].…”

Towards Precision Medicine: Inclusion of Sex and Gender Aspects in COVID-19 Clinical Studies—Acting Now before It Is Too Late—A Joint Call for Action

“…Moving beyond sex-disaggregated data collection and including variables such as disability, age, ethnicity, migration status, socioeconomic status, or geographic location, will contribute to ensure health benefits from clinical trials for all. To better understand and respond to the burden posed by COVID-19, both on health systems and different segments of human populations, gender dimensions must be recognized as an intersecting component of wider structural inequalities [8]. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing, most acutely, the wider social inequalities that are based on gendered social, cultural, and economic faultiness, whether it is leaving a majority of frontline workers (in many contexts mostly women) without PPE, the disproportionate burden of unpaid care on women, or gender-based violence perpetuated within the household, apart from the economic devastations experienced by the poor and women in the poorest quintiles.…”