“No time for that” was the constant refrain heard by gender and women’s health experts working in the 2014/16 Ebola response. This was an emergency and the main thing was to deal with the crisis.

It was the Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone outbreak of Ebola that signalled what was to come for women around the world in the COVID-19 outbreak. Quarantines saw a rise in domestic and intimate partner violence. Girls were banned from school when they returned pregnant. Fear of health centres and hospitals and closures led to increases in other health issues. More women died from maternal mortality than from Ebola.

In early 2020 I worked with women around the world to raise the flag of the potential gendered impact of COVID-19. But few people wanted to listen. No time for that. As with Ebola, it is often only when the harm is done that people working on the response realise two crucial things. First, health emergencies do immediate and long term harm to women, disproportionately. And second, women are essential to responding to health emergencies.

Ebola outbreaks are scary. We’ve come along way from 2014/16 and the Ugandan government is doing all the right things – alerting the world, contact tracing, protecting frontline health workers, working with traditional healers, and working on communications to avert stigma. But there is a real risk that once again the issues that affect women and girls during a health emergency will be missed.

“Lessons learned” is a tired global health trope. But when it comes to the impact on women, we need to take action and here’s how.

5 steps to take to centre women

First, no-one likes lockdowns. But quarantines and lockdowns are specifically a feminist issue. They harm women and put an increased burden on their time and labour. If necessary, any quarantine measures should be accompanied by a full support package for vulnerable women.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/ebola-in-uganda-why-women-must-be-central-to-the-response-192975