A gender-responsive Pandemic Accord is needed for a healthier, equitable future

From HIV and influenza, to Zika virus, Ebola virus disease, and most recently COVID-19, the gender implications of disease outbreaks and the detrimental effects of a lack of a gender lens in the way governments and societies respond to large-scale and contained epidemics are well documented. Pandemics create differential vulnerabilities with particular negative implications for women in all their diversities and their health, and further exacerbate long-existing, deep-rooted gender inequalities and social injustices, more severely disadvantaging women in low-income and middle-income countries, women in marginalised communities, and women who are criminalised.