COVID-19 Resources: Gender Data, Gender, and Data

Gender data is necessary for a gender-sensitive response to COVID-19.

This is true not only for alleviating the immediate health crisis but also for crafting policy measures to mitigate the long-term impacts of the pandemic on women’s livelihoods and well-being. It is crucial that gender data remain a priority commitment for the global community both before and after the current outbreak.

With this in mind, Data2X is monitoring organizations currently advocating for gender data collection and use worldwide in addition to collating resources on gender and COVID-19. Data2X will undertake further analysis of longer-term impacts in the coming weeks — and in particular, consider the gender data necessary for governments to design comprehensive and gender-sensitive social and economic policy responses to the global pandemic.

This compilation of gender data, gender, and data resources related to COVID-19 aims to inform policymakers, governments, decision-makers, and researchers who want to understand and respond thoughtfully to the gendered impacts of the pandemic.

This page reflects the early literature (March–June 2020) on the gender data, gender, and data implications of the coronavirus pandemic. We are currently updating the “gender data” and “data” sections under the Resource Compilation, and we encourage you to visit the following websites for more recent news articles on COVID-19:

• Gender and COVID-19 Working Group
• COVID-19 Digital Knowledge Hub (Southern Voice)
• COVID-19 and Gender Resources (compiled by Dr. Rosemary Morgan, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
• COVID-19 Data Resources (Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data)
• Data in the Time of COVID-19 (Open Data Watch)
• COVID-19, Gender, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Digest (The Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University)
• Feminist Response To COVID-19
• Resource page for National Statistical Offices (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs)
• In Focus: Gender Equality Matters in COVID-19 Response (UN Women)
• COVID-19 Gender Data Resources (World Bank)

Gender Data Trackers

The following sources are tracking the availability of pandemic-related gender data.

• Global Health 50/50: COVID-19 sex-disaggregated data tracker
• UN Women’s Women Count Data Hub: Live tracker of COVID-19 cases around the world
• Harvard GenderSci Lab: US Gender/Sex COVID-19 Data Tracker

Calls to Action: Gender Data & COVID-19

The following publications recommend gender data collection and use in relation to COVID-19. The calls to action span a variety of themes—from public health to the economy, gender-based violence, unpaid care, intersectional public policy, community engagement, child protection and migration, among others. The breadth of these recommendations, made by groups across several sectors and regions, demonstrates that gender data can illuminate policy responses across a wide array of pandemic-related impacts worldwide.