To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

Given the increased prevalence of gender-based violence and digital gender-based violence during the pandemic, the European Commission is proposing a new directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, which will now be reviewed by the European Parliament.

A directive to prevent and combat violence against women

The proposal will cover the areas of prevention, protection, access to justice, support, coordination and cooperation between authorities. The proposal includes protection against certain forms of cyber violence and recognises the gendered nature of digital violence: “It is necessary to provide for harmonised definitions of offences and penalties  regarding certain forms of cyber violence. Cyber violence particularly targets and  impacts women politicians, journalists, and human rights defenders. It can have the effect of silencing women and hindering their societal participation on an equal footing with men. Cyber violence also disproportionately affects women and girls in educational settings, such as schools and universities, with detrimental consequences to their further education and to their mental health, which may, in extreme cases, lead to suicide.”

A specific focus on cyber violence

It further asks to make the spreading of images without consent a criminal offense, and mentions the threat of ‘deepfakes’. It also calls on minimum rules on cyber stalking (e.g. retrieving location data, hacking home equipment, …), cyber harassment (such as online mob attacks) cyber incitement of hate.

Image by the European Union

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The initiatives currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

Mapping key areas of municipal services

The Women’s Coalition started to monitor the gendered impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the basis of municipal services and prepared the “Pandemic Map of the Municipalities.”

In the first cycle, 30 metropolitan, provincial, and district municipalities have been evaluated in 12 key areas including:

• participation in decision-making and other processes (from a gender+ perspective with women, LGBTIQ+, and elderly as the main focus);
• dissemination of key information (regarding support services and legal rights with respect to GBV and other relevant rights);
• food-goods-hygiene packages delivered to vulnerable women;
• economic support;
• housing support;
• mobility-access support;
• culture-arts-sports services for women, children & youth;
• gender-based violence support services (including shelters);
• access to health;
• care support, support for other species living in the municipality (i.e. animals, e.g. feeding street dogs, cats, etc.);
• institutional mechanisms for gender-equality (for municipality staff)

Creating a Pandemic Map

The results of the first monitoring cycle have been made public on a map. Women’s Coalition also shared questions posed in this study for monitoring the municipalities as well as answers for each municipality. The map includes hotline phone numbers in each city to report gender-based violence.

With the “Pandemic Map of the Municipalities,” Women’s Coalition aims to make more women informed and make use of the services provided by the municipalities and encourage municipalities to see the varying problems and needs of women and provide services accordingly, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. The second cycle of the initiative started in December 2021 and is still underway.

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by: Marloes van Engen

Nurses were hit hard by the corona crisis, among others, due to a shortage of materials and over- crowded hospital wards. If the health crisis revealed that nurses are among the most important employees in a hospital, they had until then little influence or say about hospital policies. This changed at the start of the pandemic, as nurses saw the opportunity to improve their position. They advocated for more influence on hospital policies.

When crisis teams in hospitals were made at the start of the corona crisis, nurses (or nursing advisory councils) were not included. In fact, they did not even know crisis teams were created, while they are the largest occupational group in hospitals and responsible for the large share of the crisis response. Nurses, however, do not think this happened intentionally, but they simply were not immediately thought of. After lobbying, they have entered the crisis team in many hospitals.

Establishing nursing advisory councils (VAR’s) has also become more common. VAR’s provide advice on a professional basis to the management or board of directors of an organization to ensure and improve the quality of care. The VAR’s are nowadays often represented in the crisis teams within hospitals. This implies that nurses have a voice in short- and long-term policies through their advisory role

The position of nurses has formally improved. In the near future, nurses will be asked to give advice about policies in some hospitals, just like medical staff and patient councils. Thus, the corona crises gave the emancipation of nurses an impulse. Increasing decision-making for nurses can also lead to better working conditions, which should help battle the shortage of medical personnel.