Think about the care economy: who is taking care of the sick? Who’s leaving their job? This workload has always been there, but now it has more than doubled. It is impacting women’s and girls’ health and wellbeing. And this is before we add the physical and sexual violence within homes that women and girls face in such times.

Who determines a woman’s economic trajectory? Gender roles that allow or don’t allow certain things impact a woman’s financial freedom.

It comes back to social norms around economics: who can own land, is there trust in decisions made by women, who has access to markets, who is allowed to leave home to try a new job when one is lost? It starts from the very communities these women are upholding. 

What are the key areas to address when we talk about Covid response or recovery plans?

We must look at how discriminatory policies are, even when they appear to be neutral. It’s important to respond in ways that are conscious of inequality, conscious that crisis does not impact us all the same. When we talk policy, people pigeon-hole responses. ‘On gender we’re doing this’ – but gender is not some ministry, gender is encompassing of all different things and aspects of our lives, whether it’s financial issues, access to health or justice, and more.

We need to look at how gender intersects with other oppressions, like capitalism, that we’re struggling with. Recognize a lasting legacy of colonialism that we're dealing with: we’re still functioning in colonially-constructed states, and they still respond to our needs in a colonial way.

One last question: what lessons can you share about how we can balance including people’s voices without overburdening already oppressed groups?

The reality is that marginalized or oppressed people have already been doing the job. They have been explaining what the problems are, why things are harmful, why we need change. That is already a lot of labor!

Their learning and their thoughts are already out there – seek that out, look at what is already recommended! This is not a new conversation for most of these communities – for women, for minorities, for Black people. These are things people have been talking about for a long, long time, and warning of these inequalities and the impact on their lives.