POLICY PAPER - CPED Policy Paper Series No.2, 2023 - The Impact of Covid-19 on Women’s Unpaid Care

This Policy Paper synthesizes the literature on the gendered effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Nigerian women’s rights and wellbeing by focusing on studies of the impact of the mandatory lockdowns and movement restrictions women’s unpaid care burdens and their access and use of health care for the benefit of policymakers in Nigeria. [...] The project team, CPED and the University of Windsor are particularly grateful to IDRC and its partners for the funding of the Women Rise Initiative Programme to which CPED and the University of Windsor are beneficiaries. [...] This paper synthesizes the literature on the gendered effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Nigerian women’s rights and wellbeing by focusing on studies of the impact of the mandatory lockdowns and movement restrictions women’s unpaid care burdens and their access and use of health care. [...] This basically reflects the pattern of the time for sleeping available to women and men in the study areas to the disadvantage of the females. [...] Conclusion This synthesis of the literature on the impact of Covid-19 on women in Nigeria indicates that the pandemic had its effects on the delivery of unpaid care and domestic work in the various households in the country due to the fact that the knockdown policy of governments during the peak of the pandemic led to a considerable increase in unpaid care and domestic work.