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The COVID-19 crisis led to the rapid and widespread adoption of telework in a multitude of sectors to curb the spread of the virus, while also allowing organisations and companies to continue their activities. This sudden imposition of telework strongly impacted the relationships of people with regards to their jobs and their work-life balance, though these effects, both positive and negative, were not experienced in equal measure across all societal groups. However, while telework can, for instance, reinforce existing gender care and labour gaps, it can also serve as a catalyst for narrowing these gaps.

Emerging global and national data show increases in gender-based violence and increases in the reported number of cases of gender-based violence against women and LGBTQI persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESISTIRÉ analysis shows that a majority of countries failed to address issues of gender-based violence in their COVID-19 policy response and while civil society organisations managed to react in some instances, the pandemic also put pressure and circumscribed their range of activities.

Emerging global and national data show increases in gender-based violence and increases in the reported number of cases of gender-based violence against women and LGBTQI persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure to finalise the adoption of the Istanbul Convention at the EU level is a contributing factor to increasing the conditions for and occurrences of gender-based violence during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis has reinforced many pre-existing inequalities, and simultaneously made them more visible. The lockdowns brought with them the closure of many care facilities and the requirement to stay at home, which strongly impacted people with caring responsibilities, whether it be for children, elderly people, people with a disability, and/or others. But the situation impacted men and women in different ways, as the gender care gap was exacerbated, and women took up more care work. The gender pay gap likely contributed to this trend: because women tend to earn lower wages and work in part-time jobs more often, they were the most likely to have to give up their paid work within a couple in order to sustain the increased caring duties of a household.