The project

Project mission

The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis as well as a humanitarian, economic and social crisis that affects us all. As a group, women have been hit harder by the political responses than men; an inequality which increases depending on their class, age, or migration status. While some have worked from home and done online shopping, others are still unemployed, victims of violence, financial difficulties, or suffer physical and mental illness; all a consequence of “normal” societal supports being disrupted or halted during the pandemic.

RESISTIRÉ is a 30-month research project that aims at finding sustainable solutions to these gendered inequalities and to strengthen societal resilience to outbreaks.

Objectives

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Understand

To what extent have COVID-19 policies impacted gendered inequalities in Europe? How have these vulnerable groups – and society in general – responded to these inequalities?

Our research activities are carried out in the EU27, Serbia, Turkey, the UK, and Iceland. They cover mapping policies, collecting extensive data through surveys, individual narratives, workshops, interviews, identifying best practices that mitigated the effects.

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Co-design policy solutions

This data is then analysed and summarised into public reports. Based on the analysis of this data, and the public reports, researchers and stakeholders from civil society work together in “Open Studios” to co-design practical policy solutions that can really make a difference. Pilot actions are finally tested to ensure their efficiency.

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Ensure Impacts

RESISTIRÉ publishes new research agendas, advocacy, policy recommendations, and innovative pilot actions. Policymakers and stakeholders are empowered to anticipate impacts on inequalities when making decisions linked to public health and outbreaks, for a fairer social recovery.

Methodology

RESISTIRÉ meets these objectives in three cycles, each consisting of four steps to combine quantitative and qualitative research with co-creation activities. The co-creation cycle takes six months and is repeated twice, each cycle producing operational results and integrating insights from the previous one. End-users are engaged throughout the process: stakeholders participate in defining the policy guidelines, and civil society organisations in the pilot projects.

Insight

Extensive mapping of policy and societal responses to COVID-19, secondary survey data, workshops with civil society, interviews with public authorities, and individual narratives collected from precarious and vulnerable groups, and translated into operational insights.

Creativity

Development of adequate responses and operational tools from a holistic perspective, with a co-design approach involving multiple stakeholders, with recommendations for actions for policymakers, stakeholders and actors in the field.

Solutions

Launch of pilot actions to demonstrate the potential impact of a range of proposed solutions.

Outcomes

Dissemination of knowledge, development of policy recommendations and a new research agenda, advocacy, and empowerment of stakeholders to exploit project results.

A GENDER+ approach

The RESISTIRÉ project is informed by a gender+ approach, recognising intersections of gender with age, race/ethnicity, class, disability and sexuality as likely to be particularly significant in the analysis of the impact on inequalities of policy responses to COVID-19.

Impact

By providing in-depth knowledge of the negative impacts of COVID-19 policies on inequalities and involving stakeholders in the co-creation of policy solutions, RESISTIRÉ will have five main impacts: