The Way Forward: Gender Equity by Design

In the quiet of their homes, women are shouldering a staggering increase in unpaid labor and caretaking springing from the Covid-19 crisis, while facing a spike in domestic violence. They also are more likely to have lost their jobs in pandemic lockdowns and many of the remaining jobs have put them at elevated risk of contracting the virus. It is bracingly clear: the economic and social toll of Covid-19 will be paid disproportionately by women and girls, even as studies show equality is good for economies and societies as a whole.

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and in collaboration with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, released a report on Sept. 10 which provides a roadmap for a changing world. Marking the 25^th anniversary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, which took place in Beijing, China in 1995, the new report offers a strategy for accelerating gender equity progress, building upon the original Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

In this second edition of our online magazine Matter of Impact, we focus on the ongoing work to achieve gender equity. The Rockefeller Foundation’s Sundaa Bridgett-Jones examines the extra burden carried by women of color and names an opportunity of the moment: to finally build true solidarity in the women’s movement. The Foundation’s Deepali Khanna explains why prioritizing women entrepreneurs will help communities recover faster. A Nigerian woman lighting the way in the male-dominated sector of renewable energy shares how her sister’s memory influences her, and in India, brave women who have been repairing water handpumps in rural villages throughout the pandemic gather on Zoom to sing together in Hindi: “We shall overcome.”

Much has been said about the opening created by this challenging spring and summer. Together, we have a chance to recreate not the same world, but a more just one. The voices gathered for this edition offer a glimpse of that way forward.