Navigating the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a multifaceted crisis, impacting health, the economy, policy and society at large, and also resulting in a humanitarian crisis. These crises have impacted everyone, although the effects have been unevenly distributed, leading to further disadvantage and marginalisation for those who were already vulnerable and marginalised. The pandemic laid bare and intensified pre-existing gender inequalities in many aspects of life, from the labor market and educational opportunities to health and social protection systems. The unequal impacts on women and men have been observed in the economy and employment, in domestic work and care, in physical and mental health, and in violence. The collection of articles in this special issue critically interrogates these key issues relating to the impact of the pandemic on gender equality in Europe, highlighting exacerbated gender inequalities, policy responses and the potential for a gender-responsive recovery. This special issue brings together a collection of eight articles that investigate various aspects of gender inequality exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that explore potential pathways towards achieving greater gender equality in the post-pandemic world. They summarise the findings and contributions of several social scientists and also of two EU funded projects: RESISTIRÉ (GA 101015990) and GEARING Roles (GA 824536). The articles are structured around five main themes: labor market disparities, education and skill development, social and political responses, post-pandemic opportunities, and care. Each article contributes unique insights, empirical findings and policy recommendations from a feminist perspective to enrich the ongoing discourse on gender equality. Together, the articles show the necessity of feminist analysis of crisis, and reveal the structural roots of inequalities while simultaneously emphasising the necessity for transformative action to address inequalities

Gender mainstreaming in times of crisis: Missed opportunities in pandemic policymaking

  This article problematises gender-mainstreaming in Swedish policy responses to COVID-19 in relation to economic politics. The aim is to understand how gender mainstreaming was implemented, and with what effects. Little is still known about gender mainstreaming in crisis management and policymaking, and even less is known in relation to pandemic policy responses. To contribute to this field of knowledge, the article therefore analyses the Swedish National Recovery and Resilience Plan, supplemented by interviews with public servants, to understand the factors that impact the implementation of gender mainstreaming in policymaking in times of societal crises. At a theoretical level, the article draws on feminist institutionalism and implementation studies, the notion of resilience, and insights from critical frame analysis. The data is based on a larger dataset collected as part of the EU-funded RESISTIRÉ: Responding to Outbreaks through Co-creative Inclusive Equality Strategies project. The results indicate that gender mainstreaming is limited in its rationale and scope in times of crisis and that the integration of a gender equality perspective in crisis management needs to be developed in several important ways

Physical and Legal Security and the Criminal Justice System: A Review of Inequalities

This research report is intended to contribute to two aspects of the work of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. First, to the production of the Triennial Review in 2010 of progress towards equality, human rights and good relations. Second, to assess the challenges facing Criminal Justice System agencies in meeting the new public sector duty to promote equality, due to come into force in April 2011. This duty extends the existing duties to promote equality on race/ethnicity, gender and disability to other protected equality groups (by religion/belief, age, sexual orientation, gender identity) as part of the Equality Act 2010. The Public Sector Equality Duty is a potential tool and key driver for identifying discrimination and inequality of outcomes and taking action. The Public Sector Equality Duty provides an impetus for organisations to actually gather data and take action on inequalities

The violently gender-equal Nordic welfare states

This primarily conceptual chapter interrogates violence and gender equality, and the relationship between these, in the Nordic welfare states. It discusses what violence is and asks what happens when we focus primarily on violence as a central question of the analysis. It builds on previous collaborative work and contributes to the debate on gender power relations in the Nordic countries by conceptualising violence as an organising principle, and simultaneously placing violence at the centre of gender relations and as a relatively independent domain. It shows how the ‘violently gender-equal’ Nordic welfare states can be understood beyond the ‘Nordic paradox’

The role of intersectionality and context in measuring gender-based violence in universities and research performing organisations in Europe for the development of inclusive structural interventions

The aim of the paper is to discuss how thinking about gender-based violence intersectionally and in context can not only enrich our understandings but also lead to transformative change in organisations. The paper argues that to better understand gender-based violence in universities and research institutions, analyses need be intersectional and contextual. Such approaches go beyond binary understandings of gender and narrow legalistic definitions of gender-based violence. The paper reflects on how to operationalise this to derive starting points for intersectional categories to consider and contextual factors to measure at micro, meso and macro levels. It concludes that a multi-level intersectional analysis leads to more nuanced knowledge on experiences of gender-based violence, and is therefore better equipped to inform the development of measures to eradicate the problem in an inclusive way

Stopping rape: towards a comprehensive policy

The need to stop rape is pressing. Since it is the outcome of a wide range of practices and institutions in society, so too must be the policies to stop it. This important book offers a comprehensive guide to the international policies developed to stop rape, together with case study examples on how they work. The book engages with the law and criminal justice system, health services, specialised services for victim-survivors, and educational and cultural interventions, as well as how they can best be coordinated. It is informed by theory and evidence drawn from scholarship and practice from around the world. It will be of interest to a global readership of students, practitioners and policy makers as well as anyone who wants to know how rape can be stopped

The concept and measurement of violence against women and men

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. The extent of violence against women is currently hidden. How should violence be measured? How should research and new ways of thinking about violence improve its measurement? Could improved measurement change policy? The book is a guide to how the measurement of violence can be best achieved. It shows how to make femicide, rape, domestic violence, and FGM visible in official statistics. It offers practical guidance on definitions, indicators and coordination mechanisms. It reflects on theoretical debates on ‘what is gender’, ‘what is violence’, and ‘the concept of coercive control’. and introduces the concept of ‘gender saturated context’. Analysing the socially constructed nature of statistics and the links between knowledge and power, it sets new standards and guidelines to influence the measurement of violence in the coming decades

Interrogating violence against women and state violence policy: Gendered intersectionalities and the quality of policy in The Netherlands, Sweden and the Uk

This article builds on feminist scholarship on intersectionality to address violence against women, and state policy thereon. It takes up the challenge of analysing the complex, situated and spatial relationship between theorizing on violence against women and state policy on such violence. Drawing on extensive comparative European data, it explores the relations of gender and intersectionality, conceptualized as gendered intersectionalities, by examining how multiple inequalities are made visible and invisible in state policy and debates in the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. Attention is paid to different forms of gendered intersectionalities in policy, for example, tendencies to degender violence against women. A key aim of the article is to investigate how comparative analysis can be a starting point for assessing if, how and to what extent the inclusion of multiple inequalities could increase the quality of policy, for both reducing and stopping violence, and assisting those subject to violence

The concept and measurement of violence against women and men

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. The extent of violence against women is currently hidden. How should violence be measured? How should research and new ways of thinking about violence improve its measurement? Could improved measurement change policy? The book is a guide to how the measurement of violence can be best achieved. It shows how to make femicide, rape, domestic violence, and FGM visible in official statistics. It offers practical guidance on definitions, indicators and coordination mechanisms. It reflects on theoretical debates on ‘what is gender’, ‘what is violence’, and ‘the concept of coercive control’. and introduces the concept of ‘gender saturated context’. Analysing the socially constructed nature of statistics and the links between knowledge and power, it sets new standards and guidelines to influence the measurement of violence in the coming decades