As society emerges from COVID-19 into a recovery economy, questions about the future of care also emerge. What organizational and policy changes are needed to ensure that care work and caregiving is more equal and sustainable? And what research questions on the care economy remain to be investigated? To explore these lines of inquiry, the Institute for Gender and the Economy convened a virtual research roundtable on Care Work in the Recovery Economy in January and February of 2022 with support from Women and Gender Equality Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The workshop hosted over 60 scholars and practitioners from around the world who presented their cutting-edge research, identified research agendas, and discussed policy implications for the future of care. This report by Rotman Institute for Gender and the Economy highlights key policy and research insights from the roundtable.

From FP Analytics. A sustainable, equitable, and just recovery from COVID-19 requires purposeful policy action to mitigate the worsening of structural inequalities and to address their root causes. This report synthesizes existing evidence of how women have been impacted by the pandemic, how governments have responded to date, and what is at stake if policymakers fail to enact more inclusive recovery measures. It also provides recommendations for rights-based policies, interventions, and investments underpinned by rigorous gender analysis. Finally, this report recognizes that “the women and girls who are furthest behind often experience multiple inequalities and intersecting forms of discrimination, including based on their sex, age, class, ability, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and migration status” and calls for an intersectional and nuanced approach to evidence-based policymaking that benefits everyone.

From Criterion Institute. Criterion Institute, in partnership with leading gender lens investors, has identified 10 evidence-based economic patterns and translated them into investment opportunity and risk. Understanding these patterns is critical for investors of all kinds to understand short- and long-term risks, uncover hidden opportunities, and invest to capitalise on both. Understanding these will enable government and impact investors focused on recovery to invest better for the outcomes they seek.

From Digital Undivided. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Digital Undivided set out to gain a more holistic understanding of the short and long-term implications on Black women entrepreneurs. This report is a snapshot of the experiences of 1,157 Black women who have applied to the fund, thus far.

From Value for Women. This How-To Guide makes an important contribution to our industry work by providing practical tools and resources for an investing community that urgently needs to address its diversity and inclusion deficits. Globally, awareness of gender lens investing continues to gain momentum, but we must convert this awareness to action and movement of capital, especially during this period of COVID-19 response and recovery. Thus, how fund managers invest is just as important as what they invest in. This perspective not only demands a technical approach (gender analysis, tools, and frameworks), but also broader organizational re-alignment (gender mainstreaming). This internal process is an essential part of creating external change and outcomes that advance gender equality.

From the Boston Globe. The inequities of those most impacted by COVID-19, Black- and brown- majority communities, show that we are not, in fact, in this together. People of color, particularly from Black- and brown-majority communities, have accounted for significantly higher COVID-19 related deaths; the survival rates of their businesses are positioned to follow a similar trajectory. Before the World Health Organization deemed the coronavirus a pandemic, Black businesses were already reeling. Black entrepreneurs are denied bank loans more than twice as often than their white peers — 53 percent to 25 percent. And people of color pay higher interest rates on average than their white peers — 7.8 percent to 6.4 percent. In addition, Black firms’ vulnerability is made evident by who was able to weather the 2008 Recession. About half of Black businesses survived, compared to 60 percent of white-owned firms, according to US Census research.

From Forbes. It’s a pivotal moment in US history, one in which Congress uniquely holds the purse strings that will set the course of our future. Will small businesses emerge from quarantine fortified from the stimulus, ready to rebuild the economy? Or will they be truly decimated, wiping out a hard-earned generation of wealth for small business owners?

From UNICEF and Criterion Institute. Finance is one of the most powerful systems on earth. This opportunity brief from UNICEF and Criterion Institute explores how gender-based violence (GBV) in emergencies can be understood as material to investment decision-making. Through a series of research literature reviews and expert interviews, UNICEF and Criterion Institute identify when the costs of government inaction on GBV prove most relevant to market stability and the potential for financial return. The research focuses on four investment vehicles and approaches relevant to post-disaster financing: sovereign debt, blended finance, climate finance, and project finance investments. What’s more, it examines potential leverage points before, during, and after emergencies where the structuring or movement of capital could improve investment decision-making and reduce GBV vulnerability.

By Professor Marian Baird and Associate Professor Elizabeth Hill. Analysis from a rapid but extensive literature review around the impacts of COVID-19 and previous pandemics and recessions on women’s economic position. This includes analysis on actual and potential impacts in Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam, and risks and opportunities looking ahead.

This report was completed by Professor Marian Baird and Associate Professor Elizabeth Hill from the University of Sydney, and funded by Investing in Women.

From Domini Impact Investments LLC. Join 336 (at time of writing) responsible investors worth $9.2T in signing this Investor Statement to Coronavirus Response.