"We're looking at the disease as a medical model, not through an intersectional lens" so lacking gendered analysis or understanding of contributory economic conditions - Pragna Patel from @SBSisters on govt's 'criminal and immoral' response at @fawcettsociety #coronaconversations

Excellent event this evening kicked off by @CCriadoPerez noting yet again that women's experience deemed unimportant in a crisis - from different experience of the virus (that could offer solutions) to frontline care work to financial vulnerability and risk of violence

Govt has "failed to get off first base" in understanding the abuse that women face, even though it makes economic, moral, social and political sense to provide a solution, as governments in i.e. France and Italy are doing, that shows violence will not be tolerated - Pragna Patel

Government is "reactive" in this crisis because they don't have the expertise, because they don't have 50 pct of the population represented in their teams. You have to think about gender from the very beginning - @CCriadoPerez #coronaconversations

"The crisis has exposed underlying problems in the economy: the fact that the economic system doesn't work for women who are more likely to be poor, earn far less, have caring responsibilities" -Mary Anne Stephenson from @WomensBudgetGrp joins Fawcett-hosted #coronaconversations

Furthermore, what we've seen with the government's response to the crisis is an economic package that reveals the fact that the situation we were in before was a political choice - Mary-Ann Stephenson @WomensBudgetGrp

Initial furlough scheme had v little consideration of people who would have to care for children while working from home. The idea you can carry on working in those situations is massively unrealistic. Govt now includes caring responsibilities but it hasn't publicised it - MAS

Children living in poverty are unable to access the kind of tech necessary to keep up w school work. Where exams have been cancelled students get grades based on teacher assessments, which disadvantages children from BAME and low-income backgrounds - Mary-Ann Stephenson

"Children are poor because their mothers are poor. And responding to that means (creating) a social security system that actually provides a safety net when people need it the most." Massively increasing child benefit, w low transaction cost and high take-up is good answer - MAS

There is a lot of data showing us what policies would work better than the supposed 'gender neutral' policies that don't work for women - @CCriadoPerez

Gender mainstreaming has led to a neutralisation of the situation that doesn't allow for collecting gendered data we need. What this crisis has also revealed is the punitive policies towards the working poor - they have been laid bare. - Pragna Patel from @SBSisters

The paradox of the situation is that the very people that this government's economic system has said are disposable are the very people now saving lives - they are in the front line and many of them are women. - Pragna Patel #coronaconversations @fawcettsociety

You have to give equality to everyone because the world is turning upside down and with it, the idea that some people's lives don't matter. - Pragna Patel

This has highlighted our interdependency. Everyone has a worth and everyone's contribution keeps us alive and secure. We've talked about state failures but we have a civil society that's doing it for itself. Schools delivering food. Neighbourhoods looking out for each other. - PP

Memory is going to be critical when this is all over. We have to harness it to change the world order. - Pragna Patel

I'm sure a lot of people didn't know how tiny carer's allowance was before this. There's no denying there's been a huge rise in awareness of how poorly paid our carers are. - @CCriadoPerez , adding that majority-female healthcarestaff are suffering from PPE designed for men

The majority of healthcare workers who are infected are women - more exposed and less protected. Similar to female police at risk because stab vests don't fit. We keep suggesting that equipment provision with no relation to the female body is somehow unisex. @CCriadoPerez

We've already seen at least one midwife die of corona virus so the issue of PPE within other medical settings is v important. Pregnant women are getting mixed messaging. Are they entitled to be furloughed? Some have been told to take unpaid leave, sick leave - Mary-Ann Stephenson

There are issues with migrant women who are still having to pay for maternity healthcare and building up huge debts that than affects their ability to apply for a visa. Many pregnant women have still not been released from prison. - MAS

What happens at the end of this? If companies manage to struggle through now but are later contracting or going bust - and those women who have had furloughed leave because of care responsibilities (usually mothers not fathers in most households) are 1st for redundancy? - MAS

Many women are experiencing situations at home where fathers are locking themselves away with 'real work' and leaving their partners to do their work and childcare and productivity really suffers and employers aren't taking that into account - MAS

Pragna Patel: women are coming together to look after and support each other. It's not just the physical care and making invisible people like single parents and disabled people visible, but it's nurturing an ethics of care again. #coronaconversations @fawcettsociety