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The Lasting Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women’s Work, Health, and Safety

The Maternal Health Initiative’s recent publication discusses the economic, health, and safety implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on women. The report provides key strategies and recommendations to strengthen and safeguard women’s role in the workforce and economy.

COVID-19 Recovery: Recognizing Women’s Paid and Unpaid Work

The Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative, in collaboration with EMD Serono, the healthcare business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, held a dialogue on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s economic and health security. Panelists reflected on the importance of women’s paid and unpaid work, and highlighted strategies to improve women’s participation in the workforce.

Preventing Unintended Pregnancies in the Context of COVID-19

The Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), hosted a panel discussion on strategies to prevent and address unintended pregnancies in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilson Quarterly Fall 2021

Creating Hope

In the Fall 2021 edition of the Wilson Quarterly, Humanity In Motion, Sarah B. Barnes, Project Director of the Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative, interviewed Dr. Ilhas Altinci, a Syrian refugee living in Turkey and working with other refugees to ensure they have access to quality sexual and reproductive health services through her work with CARE. Conflict and forced displacement in Syria have increased the need for sexual and reproductive health needs among girls and young women, causing Dr. Ilhas and her team of community health workers to adapt. They launched the AMAL, or Adolescent Mothers Against All Odds, Initiative, which teaches adolescent mothers about sexual and reproductive health, life skills, and self-empowerment. Through her work in maternal care, Dr. Ihlas realizes that delivering quality care to girls and women goes beyond meeting basic health needs and requires ensuring women’s role in leadership. Without it, women are left out of decisions that affect their own health.

16DaysCampaign Calls to End Femicide: Research Shows Women in Perinatal Period at Risk

The risk of femicide is three times higher for women who experienced abuse during pregnancy compared to those who have not. In addition, Black women are three times more likely to experience attempted or completed femicide than white women. While often overlooked, femicide is a pressing public health issue that affects the most vulnerable communities of pregnant people.

COVID-19 Pandemic Exacerbates Violence Against Refugee Women and Girls

Lockdown orders and movement restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased gender-based violence (GBV) against refugee women and girls. Addressing GBV in humanitarian settings requires not just investing in community-level resources but also reducing broader, structural dimensions of gender inequality, particularly in women’s economic empowerment, political participation, and leadership.

Accessing Justice for Gender-Based Violence in Humanitarian Settings

For refugee and displaced persons, seeking and receiving justice for gender-based violence is challenging. Fear of retaliation, distrust of legal systems, and difficulty with navigating legal systems are all barriers that survivors face when accessing justice. To improve justice for survivors and eliminate violence, efforts must be made to improve reporting procedures and survivor-centered services.

Pathways to Justice: Gender-Based Violence And The Rule Of Law

Gender-based violence (GBV) affects one in three women worldwide, making it an urgent and important policy challenge. Many countries around the world have passed laws intended to protect women from violence, yet violence persists. This publication aims to focus on the intersection of gender-based violence and the rule of law by examining how legal frameworks, judicial system responses, and public policy contribute to the ways in which gender-based violence is—and is not—addressed around the world.

The Care Economy is the Backbone of the Economy

While essential to the economy, care work, which is predominately performed by women, is unpaid and unvalued. Improving women’s workforce participation requires recognizing women’s contribution of care work and creating policies and practices that retain their talent and compensate their labor.

Through the COVID-19 Lens: Essential Services Needs to Prevent Unintended Pregnancies

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations and governments in low- and middle-income countries turned to online programming and mobile apps to continue providing communities access to sexual and reproductive health services in order to prevent unintended pregnancies and violence against women and girls.

Black Maternal Health

This policy brief covers provisions in The Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021 and The American Rescue Plan that would support pregnant people and their families.

Perinatal Mental Health

This policy brief highlights new legislation aimed at improving perinatal and postpartum health including The Taskforce Recommending Improvements for Unaddressed Mental Perinatal and Postpartum Health (TRIUMPH) for New Moms Act, The Moms Matter Act, and The Support Through Loss Act.

New for Wilson Center Scholars

Threatened and Displaced Scholars Initiative

Our new Threatened and Displaced Scholars Initiative provides a temporary institutional base for scholars who face threats because their research has challenged their countries’ authoritarian regimes or because their countries face ongoing conflicts.

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