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.