GENDER-RESPONSIVE COVID-19 RECOVERY

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only had devastating effects on health, morbidity, and mortality but also shaken global economies and labor markets. The economic fallout had the reverse effect on gender equality. how have different countries responded to gender and labor inequalities? Which countries introduced gender-responsive measures? Which countries are more active in promoting women's rights during the pandemic? It sufficiently considered womens needs in implementing measures to the pandemic, and what factors made the Mongolian governments measures sufficient or insufficient to meet womens needs. We explore Social Protection Response to the pandemic in Mongolia. While examining which factors contributed to catering to womens needs in a series of responses to the pandemic in the world. We argue that gender-sensitive policy variations across the countries in the context of the pandemic are shaped by the institutional and cultural features besides enabler and equalizer factors of the gender-responsive measures. We found that countries with a smaller gender gap, higher female political participation, strong social protection system, active womens movement, and a higher degree of democracy are more active in promoting womens rights during the pandemic. Income was major constraint to pandemic policies. Countries with more generous and egalitarian family policies introduced more gender-sensitive measures in general and vexing times. Furthermore, Strong feminist mobilization, womens political participation, and democratization are the main determinants that influence the gender-sensitive policy process. In addition, Pandemic policy responses vary among the countries explained by the institutional and cultural features that shape the policy.