Online discussion "Invisible victims of the pandemic. How to help women cope with the consequences of a coronacrisis?"

The pandemic crisis in Kazakhstan has highlighted the problem of socio-economic inequality of women. The sectors in which women were mainly employed were most affected by the quarantine restrictions. Thus, the already low incomes of the average Kazakh woman, whose salary is 1.5 times less than that of men, decreased. Gender pay gaps and socioeconomic insecurity increase the risks of poverty for women. According to the UN, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the poverty rate among women in Asia and Africa will increase by 9% between 2019 and 2021. Socio-economic vulnerability, in turn, contributes to economic and domestic violence against women.
The socio-economic situation of women in a pandemic remains outside the focus of state policy in Kazakhstan. Official rhetoric on gender policy is often limited to family values, to the detriment of women's individual rights. At the same time, there is a lack of a systematic view of the problem of women's economic vulnerability both in the country and in individual spheres of public life.
In this regard, the following issues were discussed on the PaperLab discussion platform:
● How has the pandemic affected the economic situation of women?
● Is the feminization of poverty increasing in Kazakhstan? What indicators are there?
● What are the tools for dealing with the economic and domestic violence against women?
● How is gender perspective considered in government programs and policy and management decisions?
● What should the state and civil society do to systematize efforts to combat gender inequality in the socio-economic sphere?

The event was supported by the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan.
Video broadcast on the PaperLab channel on Youtube: https://bit.ly/3fHVRgO