COVID-19 and the Law: Framing Healthcare Worker Risks as Women’s Rights Violations – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

The author contends that the safety and security risks facing healthcare workers are deeply gendered, as women constitute 70% of the global health workforce and 90% of nurses but are excluded from leadership. The text argues that universal human rights frameworks have a "neutralization effect" that conceals these gendered impacts. To remedy this, the author recommends utilizing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) to legally address discrimination, structural underpayment, inadequate PPE, and gender-based violence in the healthcare sector.

• There is a significant gender imbalance in healthcare leadership compared to the workforce; women make up 70% of healthcare workers and 90% of nurses, yet they only hold 25% of leadership positions.
• Universal human rights frameworks may fail to protect women healthcare workers because their general framing can mask the fact that women are disproportionately affected by pandemic-related risks.
• The author proposes using the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to frame specific healthcare issues as human rights violations, including the structural underpayment of nurses and the failure to provide gender-appropriate PPE and reproductive health supplies during quarantine.
• Gender-based violence and sexual harassment are described as persistent norms in healthcare, and the author advocates for the ratification of the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) to provide formal legal recognition and sanctions.
• Healthcare workers faced extreme mortality during the pandemic; by the end of October 2020, 1,500 nurses from 44 countries had died, with total health worker fatalities estimated as high as 20,000.

APA

Sandvik, K. B. (2021). COVID-19 and the Law: Framing Healthcare Worker Risks as Women’s Rights Violations – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://www.prio.org/comments/822

Chicago

Sandvik, Kristin Bergtora. COVID-19 and the Law: Framing Healthcare Worker Risks as Women’s Rights Violations – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2021. https://www.prio.org/comments/822.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Sandvik |first1=Kristin Bergtora |title=COVID-19 and the Law: Framing Healthcare Worker Risks as Women’s Rights Violations – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=5 January 2021 |url=https://www.prio.org/comments/822 |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{sandvik2021covid19, author = {Sandvik, Kristin Bergtora}, title = {{COVID-19 and the Law: Framing Healthcare Worker Risks as Women’s Rights Violations – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)}}, publisher = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://www.prio.org/comments/822}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }