Inequalities in COVID-19 Healthcare and Research Affecting Women: Volume II

This Research Topic is part of the series Inequalities in COVID-19 Healthcare and Research Affecting Women: Volume I In 2026, data continues to highlight how the COVID-19 pandemic significantly widened inequalities for women in healthcare and research, often referred to as a "shadow pandemic" due to its indirect yet devastating impacts. Understanding and addressing the impacts of both sex and gender on health outcomes is critical to building equitable, sustainable, and healthy societies. Volume I of this special issue (e-book released in 2023) was a great success with research studies from many countries which highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic further widened existing global gender inequalities in healthcare, research, employment, income, education, and housing, among other areas.Highlighting the healthcare inequalities, it was reported that women experienced higher levels of anxiety, depression, and PTSD compared to men. This was driven by a "triple duty" of work, domestic labor, and child-rearing and homeschooling, which fell disproportionately on them. Besides, it was also shown that women were more likely to report healthcare disruptions, including delayed cancer screenings and reduced access to routine appointments for chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease. There were also disrupted maternal and reproductive services, increased maternal mortality (e.g., 40% increase in maternal deaths in Brazil in 2021), increased gender-based violence (GBV), and increased gaps in healthcare access.Secondly, the research productivity among female academics dropped by 7% relative to men, and women accounted for only about 31%–34% of authors on COVID-19-related papers. Factors included increased domestic burdens and the gendered nature of academic labor, where women often performed more administrative or "non-promotable" tasks. Moreover, COVID-19 has also uncovered the disproportionate representation of women in the governance of epidemic management, under-representing ongoing COVID-19 research publications. Despite making up 70% of the global health workforce, women held only 24.3% of seats on national COVID-19 task forces and just 25%–27% of senior leadership roles in global health organizations. Understanding sex and gender in global health should be seen as a core component of ensuring effective and equitable national and global health systems. This call aims to receive papers addressing health outcomes for women and addressing healthcare inequalities globally. We seek to publish research that addresses these inequalities through effective strategies (e.g., digital health applications/nHealth, telehealth platforms, EDI frameworks, national/organizational policies to improve access and encourage research among women, etc.) and successful case studies, and that promotes women's representation in policy and research spaces. We invite original research, systematic reviews, reviews/ mini-reviews, perspectives, commentaries, and Case studies that address the central theme of inequalities in COVID-19 healthcare and research affecting women. Topic editors: Vijay Kumar Chattu, Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia, Alma Nurtazina, Lakshmi Surya Prabha Manem, Sujatha Alla Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77446/inequalities-in-covid-19-healthcare-and-research-affecting-women-volume-ii