Gender Equity and COVID-19 (Research Week 2020)

he COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically reshaped our society. In the rush to manage this global crisis, it has become increasingly apparent that there will be a gendered impact extending far beyond the initial crisis period. Both the United Nations and the Australian Human Rights Commission have warned that the various social and economic impacts of COVID-19 stand to undo decades of progress towards gender equality. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has urged governments and institutions to put gender issues at the centre of COVID-19 responses. This year’s SAGE Research Week event will consider how Australian higher education leaders might work through emerging institutional complexities to mitigate the gendered impacts of COVID-19 within our organisations, with our industry partners, and across our communities. The event includes presentations from 2019 Vice-Chancellor’s Gender Equality Fund researchers, who will discuss how their findings might need to be recast in light of our new 2020 context, and a panel discussion with senior equity representatives from across the sector to address the making, negotiating, and implementing of the Australian Higher Education Joint Sector Position Statement, ‘Preserving Gender Equity as a Priority During and After the Pandemic’.