Gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors

Sanjana Arora
Hulda Mjöll Gunnarsdottir
Kristin Sørung Scharffscher

Keywords:

Covid-19, pandemic response, risk communication, PAN-FIGHT, gender, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany

Synopsis

This report forms part of the deliverables produced by the international research project Fighting pandemics with enhanced risk communication: Messages, compliance and vulnerability during the COVID-19 outbreak (PAN-FIGHT), funded by the Norwegian Research Council. It provides an overview of project findings pertaining the gender dimensions of the pandemic, with a particular focus on risk perceptions, compliance and vulnerability.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reiterated that the impacts of a crisis are not homogenous. Gender, which encapsulates both biological and socio-cultural ways of being, plays a role in how crises are experienced. This is evidenced by the health, economic as well as societal consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic which have affected women and men, girls and boys differently. Knowledge about gendered implications of the pandemic is thus vital for designing equitable policy responses.

This report draws on evidence from former research as well as on findings from an online survey conducted as part of the project’s data collection in 2021. The survey, reaching out to respondents in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, investigated public risk perceptions, reactions to governmental of risk communication about COVID-19, compliance with governmental restrictions and risk mitigation measures and vulnerability during the pandemic (N=4206).

Author Biographies

Sanjana Arora

Postdoctoral fellow
Faculty of Science and Technology
Department of Safety, Economics and Planning
University of Stavanger
sanjana.arora@uis.no

Hulda Mjöll Gunnarsdottir

Associate Professor
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Social Studies
University of Stavanger
hulda.m.gunnarsdottir@uis.no

Kristin Sørung Scharffscher

Associate Professor
Faculty of Science and Technology
Department of Safety, Economics and Planning
University of Stavanger
kristin.s.scharffscher@uis.no

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Published

November 30, 2022

Online ISSN

2387-6662

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.