Women Through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges, Consequences, and Resilience

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented event in contemporary history, with far-reaching repercussions for the global economy and society. This article examines the economic challenges and consequences of this pandemic for women. It further explores the pandemic effects on women’s health and well-being, exacerbated by the limited access to basic healthcare and mental health resources, and it points out the challenges facing women in frontline occupations (namely, healthcare). This article also highlights the alarming surge in domestic violence and abuse against women during the pandemic, aggravated by lockdown measures and isolation from support networks. In addition, this article discusses various social and political implications of this pandemic for women, and it reveals how women demonstrated significant resilience over the pandemic-related struggles. The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to persist in the post-pandemic era as they intersect with ongoing social and economic transformations and new events/crises. At this point, it remains to be determined to what extent this pandemic has decelerated (or even reversed) the progress that was made over the past few decades in terms of reducing gender inequality and enhancing women’s social status, and to what degree women’s resilience in the face of this pandemic has mitigated its adverse effects on their economic opportunities and social positions. Nevertheless, this article aims to provide a reference for governments, women’s organizations, and policymakers in assessing the implications of this pandemic for women and in designing sustained and targeted measures to support women vis-à-vis future crises.

1. Introduction

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, women had benefited from progress made in economic, social, and political domains over time [1,2,3,4,5,6]. There have been gradual de jure improvements, as illustrated through the Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) indicators (see https://wbl.worldbank.org/en/wbl (accessed on 14 May 2025)). In this context, important reforms have been realized in mobility legislation in terms of granting women equal rights to choose their place of residence and to obtain a passport; in workplace protections against discrimination and employment restrictions; in legislation guaranteeing equal pay for equal work; and in expanding rights related to entrepreneurship, marriage, and parenthood, inter alia. Complementarily, there have been de facto improvements as well, which are expressed through the continual decline of the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which basically spans through three core dimensions (namely, reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market) (see https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/thematic-composite-indices/gender-inequality-index#/indicies/GII (accessed on 14 May 2025)).

However, despite these advances, there persisted structural/systemic barriers facing women [1,2,3,4,5,6]. For example, on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, WBL scores still stood well below the benchmarks of equal legislative treatment between men and women in several countries across different dimensions, while the de facto GII measures lingered well above the equality thresholds in many regions. In several (particularly developing and least-developed) countries, women continued to experience inadequate legislation, as well as pronounced wage gaps, occupational segregation, and markedly lower employment rates compared to men [3]. Furthermore, a large share of women in developing and least-developed countries remained concentrated in the informal sector, where they encounter lacking labour protection standards, limited legal rights, and unfavourable working conditions [3]. Women have also been subject to enduring social discrimination; in many societies (particularly deeply conservative ones), prejudiced gender norms and cultural stigmas confined women to their households, consequently inhibiting their political/civic participation/contribution and academic attainment and often exposing them to domestic abuse and violence [7,8].

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities and, in some cases, reversed decades of progress in the economic and social status of women and their welfare/well-being [6,9,10,11,12]. Women’s experiences during the pandemic were shaped not only by structural disparities in labour market force participation, income, and access to healthcare, but also by the normative social expectations related to caregiving, emotional labour, and responsibilities in the household. Women were also significantly affected by the economic and social disruptions of the crisis due to the discriminatory social structures and their predominance in the informal economy and (unpaid) care work [13]. Moreover, their higher employment shares in frontline occupations (e.g., healthcare, education, and service sectors) raised their exposure to pandemic health risks [10,11]. Women have also largely carried the burden of household responsibilities resulting from the containment measures (e.g., school closures, lockdowns, social distancing, and disruptions to public services). They endured mental and psycho-social consequences of the pandemic derived from caregiving demands, social isolation, heightened exposure to gender-based violence, and reduced access to protection services, inter alia [14,15,16,17].

Zooming out, the COVID-19 pandemic, by decelerating the pace of globalization and disrupting international demand and supply, has restrained the positive implications of global economic integration for women by slowing economic growth and reducing the inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). These adverse effects could be linked to the ways in which economic growth has supported higher female enrollment in education, reduced social stigmas surrounding women’s participation in the labour market, and facilitated their transition from the agricultural sector to manufacturing and eventually to the service sector [18,19,20]. They could also be tied to FDI as the operations of foreign affiliates of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) often act as international vectors for diffusing gender-equality norms in business and society [21,22].

Amid those challenges, women demonstrated resilience during and after the pandemic by sustaining their roles in the household and frontline occupations [23,24] and by adapting to lockdown and social distancing through engagement in virtual networking and remote learning to advance their education and the schooling of their children [25,26]. Also, many women turned the misfortune of losing their employment during the pandemic into opportunities to start their own businesses, switch to a new occupation, and/or upgrade their digital skills [27]. They also pioneered in advocating responses to the pandemic-induced mental health and psychological issues [28] and raised their social engagement vis-à-vis the pandemic through women’s group activism and other organizations. They demonstrated community/political leadership in shaping pandemic responses, including efforts to introduce flexible work arrangements, advance Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in firms and organizations, and/or establish community-based support networks/services [29,30,31].

This paper conducts a comprehensive review of the worldwide implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the diverse challenges faced by women and the economic, health, and social consequences they have endured. It also highlights women’s resilience during and after the pandemic. The next section presents the pandemic-induced economic challenges and their consequences for women, followed by Section 3 that examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s health and well-being. Section 4 covers the rise in domestic abuse and violence during the pandemic, and Section 5 reviews other social and political implications of the pandemic for women. Section 6 highlights women’s resilience throughout and after the pandemic, and the final section provides concluding remarks.

2. Economic Challenges and Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Women

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated significant economic implications by aggravating gender inequality in the labour market. Women were often compelled to quit their jobs because they had become excessively involved in homeschooling/childcaring and other household and communal responsibilities as a result of the lockdown and social distancing policies [9,10,32]. These effects are reminiscent of the empirical evidence underscoring the impacts of household-related and socio-economic factors on women’s employment and workforce participation rates [33,34,35,36]. Globally, women were also subjected to higher layoff rates and reductions in work hours as the adverse economic impacts of the pandemic were often more severe in sectors that employ a relatively higher proportion of female workers (e.g., garment and textile industries, informal sector, and hospitality) [12,37,38]. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic caused global market disruptions in demand and supply, these trends are consistent with studies that underscore the effects of market demand-side and firm-related factors on female employment and workforce participation rates [39,40,41,42].

This situation was further aggravated since women were more likely to experience layoffs or voluntarily quit their jobs because of gender-biased responses by firms/businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic [43]. These adverse tendencies stem from distorted gender stereotypes and prejudiced assumptions that women are less committed and available for work during the period of crisis. They could also be linked to occupational segregation, particularly in some sectors/countries where women are overrepresented in jobs that are deemed to be non-essential and dispensable. In many developing countries, a significant proportion of female workers are employed in the informal sector, where they have endured higher degrees of economic insecurities and worsened working conditions during this pandemic [10].

The closures of schools and childcare centers during the pandemic generated substantial burdens on working women, driving some of them to abandon their jobs or reduce their working hours. In this context, the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on working women could be long-lasting due to high returns on experience. In other words, disruptions to continuous employment have repercussions for career advancement, as employment losses (and reduced job hours) would essentially constrain women from pursuing promotions and skill development. Social distancing/lockdown has led to further complications; caregiving supports that were initially provided by grandparents and relatives have become infeasible, thereby magnifying the caregiving responsibilities of women and increasing the demand for unpaid care [11]. Such amplified burdens have altered women’s education, forcing them to abandon schools/universities and assume full-time caregiving roles [10].

The COVID-19-induced disruptions in economic activities and supply chains had significant negative effects on sectors with high shares of female employment (e.g., hospitality, tourism, garment and textile industries, informal sector) [12,37,38]. In parallel, women were disproportionately exposed to the coronavirus because larger shares of female workers are found in frontline sectors (namely, healthcare) that feature high face-to-face contact with people [10,11]. Globally, around 70% of the healthcare workforce are women who often work as frontline healthcare providers (nurses, midwives, and community healthcare providers). Similarly, women make up the majority of the workers in health facilities (cleaners, laundry, and caterers) [44]. The negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on female employment (e.g., job losses, decreases in earnings) have been consistently linked to the large number of working women in the informal sector (estimated at 740 million) [12,45]. Evidence from selected countries indicates that the higher the national employment losses, the more severe the impacts on women’s job losses, with young women being more significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic [38]. Statistically, young women lost nearly twice as many jobs as young men in 2020, and their employment rates dropped by 11.8% and 15.8% in high-income and middle-income countries, respectively. Meanwhile, job losses were generally lower in countries that adopted proper labour policies (e.g., job retention schemes, training and reskilling programs) to alleviate the economic impact of the pandemic.

A report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) [46] indicates that, in 2020, global job losses among women amounted to 46.6 million jobs, representing a 3.6% decline (compared to a 2.6% decline for men). This report notes that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in the labour market is likely to be lessened in the upcoming years, but with sizable remaining disparities, particularly in upper-middle-income countries. It projects that the women’s employment-to-population ratio will be 1.8 percentage points lower in 2022 compared to 2019. This report notes that the confinement measures and the disproportional increases in household responsibilities for women have altered their education and employment opportunities. It also underlines some geo-economic variations in the effects of the pandemic on women in the labour market. For instance, the impact on women’s job numbers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been ambiguous since COVID-19-induced job losses among women have been countered by the increasing trend of women entering the job market to earn extra income and support their families during this time of crisis. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the impact was more significant since a higher proportion of women are employed in the informal sector, which was severely affected by the pandemic. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the closures of several Micro-, Small-, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs), combined with job losses in the informal sector during the pandemic, have resulted in disproportionate job losses for women. In East Asia, female employment decreased in many sectors, accounting for around 62% of the overall net employment decline in 2020.

There is supplementary empirical evidence that underpins the economic effects of the pandemic on women in the labour market. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic was found to have had an asymmetric impact on labour markets across selected developed countries (namely, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US)), as women were more likely than men to experience employment losses and reduced working hours [9]. Also, less-educated women were found to have disproportionately lost their jobs during the pandemic, and they generally have had higher childcare responsibilities, even while working from home [9]. Also, empirical evidence points out that social distancing has resulted in decreases in employment, particularly in service sectors characterized by face-to-face interactions and higher shares of female employment (e.g., restaurants, hospitality, tourism) [32]. In parallel, empirical evidence supports the premise that the ability to work from home has mitigated the negative impacts of the pandemic on jobs and earnings [9].

There is an empirical study [24] that examines the COVID-19 implications for gender inequality using representative datasets for six countries (China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and the US). It finds that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, women are 24% more likely than men to lose their jobs permanently, and that their income experienced a drop of 50% more than the corresponding drop in men’s income. Some country-level empirical studies have examined the adverse gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s labour market, such as in the cases of South Africa [47], South Korea [48], Bangladesh [49], Iran [50], and India [51]. This empirical literature reveals generalities and peculiarities in the effects of the pandemic on women in the labour market, and provides further evidence for the general patterns in the economic effects of this crisis on women.

Women-led businesses faced moderately higher closure probabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to men-led businesses, and this trend was more pronounced in developing countries with higher levels of gender inequality [52]. In this context, gender-biased and conservative social norms in many developing countries, where women mostly carry the burden of caregiving/homeschooling, have been further emphasized with social distancing and lockdown measures. As such, many women who initially ran and managed businesses were compelled to take on more caregiving and household duties, leading to adverse effects on women-led businesses and women’s perceived economic status in society.

With a general outlook, economic growth is often deemed to have significant effects on female labour force participation rates over time, and it generally stimulates the transition of women from the agricultural sector to the manufacturing sector and eventually to the service sector [18,53,54,55]. Such transitional patterns are tied to economic development and sectoral shifts in labour demand, accompanied by changes in social norms (e.g., reducing stigmas associated with women’s participation in the labour force) and increases in women’s educational attainment. The market disruption caused by the pandemic could have decelerated (or even reversed) these patterns, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This is due to contractions in manufacturing industries, characterized by higher shares of female employment (e.g., garment and textile industries) [56,57], as well as a slowdown in many service sectors (e.g., hospitality and tourism) that generally employ higher proportions of women [58,59]. As a result, many women could have been forced into the informal sector, thereby increasing their exposure to hazardous conditions, safety risks, and economic insecurity. Moreover, the pandemic-induced constraints on FDI inflows and the operations of MNEs may have limited the diffusion of gender equality norms in business and society through their corresponding foreign affiliates. It may have also undermined market competition, which tends to lessen discriminatory practices in hiring and promoting.

It is worth noting that the severity of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been heavily falling on certain groups of women across racial and socio-economic lines, as well as in relation to their migration status and health conditions. In this context, it is often underscored that single mothers, women from minority groups, migrant female workers (particularly those working in hazardous and unregulated jobs), and those employed in the informal sector have generally endured skewed repercussions from the pandemic [60,61,62,63,64]. These (potentially intersecting) vulnerabilities magnified the short-run economic hardship for these women and inflicted long-term setbacks in their economic/social prospects, as government and social institutions fell short in supporting minority/marginalized groups, undocumented migrants, or workers without formal employment contracts.

3. The COVID-19 Pandemic Effects on Women’s Health and Well-Being

The higher levels of women’s employment in sectors with high exposure to COVID-19-related risks (e.g., healthcare, financial services, food services, and accommodation sectors) raised their health vulnerability during the pandemic [65]. Such frontline occupations involve close physical contact with the public and limited potential for substituting many of these services (namely, healthcare) with remote work. Women were also disadvantaged in the allocation of resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in accessing healthcare services (e.g., prenatal and postnatal care) due to an overloaded healthcare system and a reluctance to appear in public places to reduce exposure to the coronavirus [66]. Women also faced limited access to sexual and reproductive healthcare during the pandemic, and they were subjected to political views that called for restrictions on abortion rights [11,67,68].

A report by UN Women [69] indicates that only 60% of deliveries in SSA were attended by trained medical professionals during the pandemic, and that around 60% of women in Azerbaijan and Turkey experienced difficulties in obtaining gynecological and obstetric care. Several studies underline the adverse implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in increasing maternal and neonatal complications (e.g., miscarriage, pre-term deliveries, and perinatal death) [70,71]. These health incidents have further accentuated psychological issues among women (e.g., anxiety and depression) [16,17,72,73,74]. There were COVID-19-induced delays in routine healthcare checks for individuals with pre-existing health conditions (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and morbidity) [75,76,77]. There were also screening delays for women (e.g., breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening), leading to negative health implications and diagnosis in longer runs [78,79].

Women’s health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic were adversely impacted by reduced caloric intake in many countries, particularly in developing and least-developed geo-economic regions due to gender biases in food distribution and reduced income [10,80]. Women were also significantly affected by long-term COVID-related symptoms, including persistent fatigue, intermittent headaches, respiratory and cardiac problems, and memory/cognitive impairments [81,82]. In fact, women are found to have a higher tendency to develop long-term COVID-19 syndrome (the persistence of physical and/or psychological symptoms after recovery from COVID-19 disease) than men [82,83,84]. School/daycare closures further intensified women’s household responsibilities during the pandemic [32,85,86]. These conditions, besides their further-emphasized role in providing emotional support to their families and children during this crisis, led to exhaustion and sleep deprivation, with long-term effects on their mental and psychological states. Also, working women in frontline services (namely, healthcare) were particularly exposed to higher stress levels (e.g., increased workloads, negative patient outcomes, and limited social support) and, as such, they were overly subjected to mental health issues [87,88].

UN Women [69] underlines that marginalized groups have faced a significantly higher risk of dying from COVID-19-caused diseases. For example, Black women are found to be around 4.3 times more likely to die from the coronavirus than white women. In Brazil, data indicate that maternal death rates from COVID-19 among Black women are twice as high as those among White women. Other studies find that COVID-19 mortality rates were relatively higher among Black and South Asian women in Canada compared to other women [89] and that the mortality rate among First Nations women was around five times higher than the mortality rate among other women [90]. In the US, there are comparable disparities in mortality risks from the coronavirus among Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous women [91,92,93]. Overall, these results reveal that socio-economic and racial disparities were reflected through higher mortality rates during the pandemic era.

The adverse implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for women’s well-being have generated calls for international interventions and policies [94] and have prompted women/social organizations (namely, Non-Governmental Organizations or NGOs) to strongly advocate for effective measures and policy reforms [95,96]. These demands have also been expressed through calls for legislative actions and social protection/support programs aimed at mitigating the implications of this pandemic for women. In this context, one of the key features emphasized in such interventions is gender-based inclusiveness within support schemes, such as healthcare and financial services tailored to women’s needs and measures that counter the rise in domestic violence against women during the pandemic, which is discussed next.

4. Domestic Violence and Abuse Against Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were already alarming trends in domestic violence against women and girls [97,98,99,100]. For instance, corresponding statistical figures reveal that one in three women has endured physical or sexual violence by their intimate partners or non-partners in their lifetime, and that around 250 million women aged 15 and above have suffered from Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in an average year. Also, women undergoing domestic violence are more likely to suffer from substantial health issues, including injuries, alcohol use problems, and sexually transmitted diseases, and they face a higher likelihood of unwanted pregnancy complications, abortion, and low birth weight babies. Also, they would often suffer from mental and psychological health issues such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder [12,97,98,99,100,101]. Domestic violence and abuse against women often stem from social and socio-economic factors, including discriminatory norms that condone violence against women, gender inequality, inadequate laws and regulations, and economic and social stress. These issues tend to be exacerbated during crises, conflicts, and social unrest [98,100]. The adverse effects often spill over to children, who would be at an increased risk of experiencing abuse, developing mental and psychological health issues, and eventually leading to unfavourable educational outcomes [100].

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these already-existing critical situations, fueled by lockdown/social distancing and the corresponding economic and psychological distress [11,14,15,102]. Several factors contributed to the COVID-19-induced surge in domestic violence and abuse against women [11,14,15,102,103,104]. Social distancing policies have trapped several women close to abusive partners, leading to increases in the frequency and severity of domestic violence and abuse, and they have generated difficulties for these women in leaving their abusive partners. Also, the economic fallout that was caused by the pandemic in terms of unemployment, income, and housing insecurities raised household tensions, triggering incidents of domestic violence and abuse against women. Compounding these issues, capacity constraints in essential social services (e.g., shelters and helplines) and healthcare services, along with social limitations in terms of access to friends and extended family during the pandemic, left women disconnected from their support social networks. These alarming situations led the Executive Director of UN Women in 2020 [Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuke] to insightfully describe the COVID-19-caused increases in domestic violence and abuse against women as the “shadow pandemic” [102].

There are significant economic costs associated with domestic violence against women. These costs encompass expenditures on medical and healthcare services to treat victims, as well as those related to corresponding criminal justice procedures [95,105,106]. Also, in many cases, there are supplementary economic costs associated with halted or reduced economic activities of women who were subjected to abuse and violence, namely, the inability to work due to physical and/or psychological trauma or time away from employment for medical and psychological treatment periods. It is estimated that the aggregate (pre-pandemic) global costs arising from violence against women amount to around 2.0% of global GDP [105]. These costs have likely been more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, given the worldwide magnitude of this crisis, the intensity of public health measures (including confinement measures and social distancing), and the widespread phenomenon of domestic violence against women during the pandemic (as previously described) [95,106].

It is worth noting the range of literature that underscores the exacerbating implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for domestic violence and abuse against women and children in different countries and geo-economic regions such as Indonesia [107], Jordan [108], Kenya [109], India [110], Iraq [111], and more-generally in low and middle-income countries [112]. The prevalence of domestic abuse and violence against women during the pandemic brings forward the criticality of emergency mechanisms and effective institutional frameworks/legislative reforms that are tailored to the distinct social and socio-political characteristics of each country.

5. Other Social and Political Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Women

The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for women are also reflected in more complex interlinkages between politics and society. The past decade has been characterized by the resurgence of populist and nationalist ideologies and ultra-conservative principles, which often express tendencies toward a patriarchal social system and male dominance [113,114,115,116]. These political movements subjected women’s social status and well-being to far-reaching implications during (and potentially after) the pandemic. In this context, it is argued that the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the surge in beliefs such as denial of climate change and political/religious fundamentalism, contributed to provoking male reactions through populism and gendered nationalism [117]. This is particularly reflected in some populist movements that emphasize traditional gender roles and channel pandemic-related anxieties into broader opposition to progressive change.

The disproportionate job losses experienced by women (particularly in the informal sector) during the pandemic and the significant increases in caregiving responsibilities have generally led to a broader societal shift toward traditional gender norms in many societies [118]. Also, political practices adopted during (and potentially after) the pandemic may have been exploited by male politicians to consolidate their dominance and gradually reduce women’s political power and leadership [118]. In parallel, there is empirical evidence showing a rise in socially conservative norms that reinforce traditional gender roles and stereotyping during the pandemic [119]. Also, due to school closures, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted girls’ school enrolment and increased dropout rates, raising the risks of child marriage, exploitation, and early pregnancy in some societies [120].

The dire implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for women prompted civil societies and social groups to call on governments and international organizations to intervene through policies/measures aiming at protecting and supporting women during the crisis [12,102]. Policy responses were generally more significant in countries with stronger democratic institutions, greater women’s representation in leadership/politics, and active women’s organizations [12]. Consequently, many governments introduced legislation to protect women against domestic violence and support survivors of domestic abuse. For instance, as of September 2020, 135 nations had implemented policies/measures in response to the rise in violence against women instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic [102]. These measures were primarily directed towards promoting services for survivors, including helplines, shelters, police and justice services, and healthcare [12]. Such measures have been more prominent in countries with a significant contribution of women in politics/political leadership [31,121,122]. Additional measures were also introduced, including awareness-raising and data collection. It is worth noting that there have been some variations in the effectiveness of these actions, with responses of governments in low-income countries and their interventions in marginalized territories generally being less significant [12,31].

There have been some positive outcomes for women in the workplace following the pandemic. For instance, many companies have adopted flexible/remote work arrangements and Employment Assistance Programs (EAPs) that support a balanced schedule between work and household responsibilities [11,32]. Also, there have been changes in gender roles in some societies, as an increasing proportion of men have worked from home and taken on caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic and continue to do so throughout the post-pandemic period [11,32,123]. These developments could contribute to long-term changes in social norms (particularly in less conservative societies), with household assignments being more equally distributed between men and women.

6. Women’s Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Amid the challenges and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, women demonstrated resilience that continued into the post-pandemic period. As previously noted, the overall employment declined generally more for women than men during the pandemic, and the pace of recovery in the aftermath was relatively slower for women [24,51,124,125,126,127]. At the onset of the pandemic, women responded to job losses with urgent coping mechanisms such as using savings, taking on loans, reducing food consumption and other expenses, and drawing on social capital [24,128,129,130]. Due to the concerns associated with the skewed impact of the pandemic on female employment, women (particularly the working ones) showed tendencies to reduce their current consumption and manage their savings as a risk-mitigating mechanism [24]. Hence, these responses underscore an important side of women’s resilience that prevails through financial management to absorb the economic impacts of the pandemic on personal and household income, and through reduced consumption to lessen the extent of financial instability. Also, women exhibited adaptation to lockdown and social distancing conditions through virtual networking and online activism, modification of household routines, and self-care practices [25].

Women generally perceived/detected health-related risks during the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly than men, and consequently, they were more active in undertaking preventive practices/routines to protect their households/communities [131]. Also, they mostly contributed to providing emotional and caregiving support in their household during the pandemic (due to increased care demands imposed by health risks, lockdowns, and closure of schools/daycare facilities), often at the expense of their own health and well-being [132,133].

Many women (particularly in developed countries) absorbed this exogenous shock by pursuing long-term strategies through participation in retraining/reskilling programs, education, and adaptation to new sectors [134,135,136]. For instance, this pandemic prompted women to invest in new skills and improve their digital literacy with the pandemic-induced shift towards remote work and online education, thereby enhancing access to new employment opportunities and broadening employment flexibility during and after the pandemic period [124,135,137]. These drives have been further promoted by the post-pandemic reopening of schools/daycare facilities, which alleviated the childcare/household burdens on women [124,134]. They were also enhanced through governmental policies and hiring incentive strategies aiming at labour market recovery and enhancing the re-entry of women who lost their employment during the pandemic back into the labour force. These policies have often been expressed through training and reskilling programs, accompanied by childcare infrastructure expansion projects [124,134]. Based on this overview, it is evident that women demonstrated adaptive capacity during the pandemic, entailing “arrangements and processes that enable adjustment through learning, adaptation and transformation” [138].

These efforts are likely to generate long-term impacts by facilitating women’s movement through the occupational ladder, and by eliciting women’s comparative advantage in cognitive-related employment through the transition from agriculture, through the manufacturing sector, and into the service sector that places a premium on problem-solving, communication, and digital competencies [55]. In turn, such higher skill levels acquired by women and their expanded sectoral representation could feed back into lessening social stigmas and reducing employment discrimination in increasingly competitive markets [139]. Also, many women embarked on entrepreneurship opportunities during and after the pandemic as a response to employment losses and reduced household incomes, often by riding the wave of pandemic-driven digital transformation and emerging opportunities [140,141,142,143]. Female entrepreneurs further expressed resilience vis-à-vis the pandemic through adaptive and diverse strategies (e.g., digital transformation, distribution network re-optimization, and product/business diversification) [142,144,145]. Also, women are found to have the capacity to introduce resilience into family businesses through decision-making, successor motivation and competence, and family support, inter alia [27].

Women in frontline healthcare services managed to adequately fulfill their duties while coping with increased workloads, psychological distress, and challenges in balancing between their professional obligations and overburdening household/caregiving responsibilities [146,147,148,149]. These women adapted to changing clinical protocols, overloaded hospitals, and resource shortages, and they managed to provide emotional support to patients and their families during periods of pandemic isolation.

Women’s leadership promoted more effective strategies to attenuate the consequences of the pandemic. As an example [121], empirical evidence suggests that there were lower COVID-19-related death and hospitalization rates in cities with a female mayor, resulting from effective enforcement of non-pharmacological policies to counter the implications of the pandemic. Also, countries led by women generally implemented operative public health interventions to control the spread of the coronavirus [150]. In parallel, women’s groups, acting independently or in partnership with other organizations, played an important role in lessening the adverse economic effects of this pandemic on society in general and on women in particular. Their roles were mostly based on improving access to healthcare during and after the pandemic, and on providing support in terms of women’s mental/psychological well-being [151,152,153,154].

Women’s resilience during the pandemic is likely to extend into the post-COVID era due to the acquired skills and adaptive strategies developed at that time. This pandemic has induced women to gain new competencies in technology, resource management, and crisis decision-making. It has also raised solidarity within women’s groups, which will likely serve as building blocks in strengthening collective empowerment in the normal societal course and emerging future challenges. The resilience expressed by women warrants follow-up analyses to examine the extent to which the positive changes have mitigated (or, perhaps, outweighed) the negative economic (and social) implications of the pandemic for women, and preserved the gains realized over the past few decades.

7. Concluding Remarks

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented event in contemporary human history, with far-reaching repercussions for the economy and society. This article reviews the economic challenges and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for women, who were severely affected by employment losses, particularly in female-dominated sectors, such as hospitality, retail, food services, and caregiving, inter alia. Many women found themselves shouldering a double burden: the professional absorption of economic shocks and simultaneous family care responsibilities that were amplified due to school/daycare closures and inadequate social safety networks following the lockdown and social distancing measures. This article further explores the pandemic effects on women’s health and well-being, exacerbated by the limited access to basic healthcare and mental health resources, and it points out the challenges facing women in frontline occupations (namely, healthcare). It also highlights the alarming surge in domestic violence and abuse against women during the pandemic, aggravated by lockdown measures and isolation from support networks. In addition, this article discusses various social and political implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for women, and it reveals how women demonstrated significant resilience over the pandemic-generated struggles. In this context, women’s resilience was evident through various channels such as household and financial management, emotional and psychological adaptation to lockdown and social distancing, and the acquisition of new skills and competencies.

The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to persist and become more complex in the post-pandemic era as they interact with social and economic changes and new events/crises. At this point, it remains to be determined to what extent this pandemic has decelerated (or even reversed) the progress that was made over the past few decades in terms of reducing gender inequality and enhancing women’s social status, and to what degree women’s resilience in the face of this pandemic mitigated its adverse effects on their economic opportunities and social positions. Nevertheless, this pandemic provided a critical learning experience for governments, women’s organizations, and policymakers by conveying the need for sustainable and targeted measures to support women vis-à-vis future crises.