Gender responsive budgeting and the COVID-19 pandemic response: a feminist standpoint

Abstract

Acknowledging the need for more gender work in Public Administration, this paper engages feminist standpoint theory to analytically frame the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic from a feminist perspective. By assessing the differential impact of the pandemic on women and men in the United States across several sectors of the political economy and society, it is apparent women face immense obstacles in the labor market, as well as in access to health, food and housing. This analytical approach is in line with the United Nation’s fifth Sustainable Development Goal, gender equity. The imperative to include women’s perspectives in pandemic response and planning is juxtaposed against the current pandemic response that primarily leaves women out of the decision-making process. The policy tool of gender responsive budgeting, successfully implemented in various countries, is proposed to offset the gender inequities triggered by the pandemic in the U.S.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• feminist standpoint theory
• gender equity
• gender responsive budgeting
• pandemic
• sustainable development
• United Nations

Notes

1 https://nwlc.org/press-releases/low-paid-women-workers-on-the-front-lines-of-covid-19-are-at-high-risk-of-living-in-poverty-even-when-working-full-time/

2 https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/covid-19-maternal-deaths-blacks-latinos/

3 https://birthequity.org/

4 https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/gender-based-violence-covid-19-pandemic

5 https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/domestic-violence-child-abuse

6 https://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/how-covid-19-puts-womens-housing-land-and-property-rights-risk

7 https://www.feedingamerica.org/research/coronavirus-hunger-research

8 https://www.feedingamerica.org/research/coronavirus-hunger-research

9 https://www.feedingamerica.org/research/coronavirus-hunger-research

10 https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/24/882109538/where-the-women-arent-on-coronavirus-task-forces

11 https://www.care-international.org/files/files/CARE_COVID-19-womens-leadership-report_June-2020.pdf

12 https://www.care-international.org/files/files/CARE_COVID-19-womens-leadership-report_June-2020.pdf

13 https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/publications-and-resources/coronavirus-stimulus-bill-states.aspx

14 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

15 https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2020.pdf

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shilpa Viswanath

Shilpa Viswanath, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at CUNY. She earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University - Newark SPAA, and her research focuses on public sector human resource management and comparative public administration.

Lauren Bock Mullins

Lauren Bock Mullins, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Management at Chazanoff School of Business, CUNY College of Staten Island. She earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University - Newark SPAA, and her research focuses on human resource management, work/family balance, and social equity.