Law’s invisible women: the unintended gendered consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown

This article examines the unintended gendered consequences of lockdown on women’s rights, particularly those related to women’s work, health and wellbeing. Situating this assessment within wider feminist legal scholarship, which exposes the gendered nature of law and the tendency to legislate in a way that prioritises a privileged male legal subject, we argue that legislation and subsequent decisions fail to centre women’s lived experiences and so deprioritise women’s needs. We ultimately argue that lessons need to be learned regarding how post-pandemic responses are implemented to mitigate the impacts on women and ensure gender is mainstreamed within the law-making process.