Much has been written about the disproportionate health and economic impact on women and men due to COVID-19 but few have studied how those variations affect businesses or how private sector leaders can rebuild their business with a focus on gender equality.
Even before the pandemic hit, developing countries were losing nearly $48 trillion in wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings between women and men. The pervasive inequality could further widen due to the impact of the current crisis.
Women now struggle even more than before to retain an equal footing in the economy. Their COVID-19 experience is shaped by rising domestic and workplace violence, higher care responsibilities, precariousness of jobs and a disproportionate lack of access to working capital and digital tools such as mobile phones.