Masculinities and COVID-19: Making the Connections

This report provides an evidence-based overview of key issues in relation to men, masculinities, and COVID-19, setting these within a gendered approach. It explores the impact of COVID-19 on men and women in different social groups and sets out principles and recommendations for policymakers and other decision-makers to take masculinities issues into account in response to the crisis. The report was written between May and July 2020, during the pandemic, and is therefore a snapshot of evolving events in different countries at a particular point in time. The evidence presented here focuses more on the experience of higher-income countries, in particular the United Kingdom and United States. This reflects in part the high death rates in these countries at the time of writing, but there are also dangerous increases in cases now taking place across the Americas, South Asia, and parts of Africa.