In a statement to commemorate the International Women’s Day, shared with the Ghana News Agency, the UN said: “the clock on women’s rights is moving backwards.”

It said despite women playing crucial roles in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, women and girls “have been the first to lose out on jobs or schooling, taking on more unpaid care work, and facing skyrocketing levels of domestic and cyber abuse and child marriage.”

The UN cautioned that the situation could plunge more women into poverty, with their healthcare sacrificed and education opportunities curtailed.

“The pandemic has highlighted even more starkly an age-old truth: the roots of patriarchy run deep. We still live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture,” it said.

“As we look to the future, a sustainable and equal recovery for all is only possible if it is a feminist recovery — one that puts progress for girls and women at its centre,” it added.

The International Women’s Day is observed annually on March 08 to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.

The UN said there was the need to create a sustainable, feminist recovery, centred around and driven by women and girls.

It said women should be first in line for the 400 million targeted jobs under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“When the world invests in expanding opportunities for women and girls, all of humanity wins. As a matter of justice, equality, morality, and plain common sense, we need to turn the clock forward on women’s rights,” it said.

The UN called for investments in woman-centred economic recovery, including debt relief and fairer tax systems that channel “some of the massive pockets of wealth around the world to those who need it most.”

It said the world needed more women in leadership in government and business, including finance ministers and CEOs, developing, and implementing green and socially progressive policies that benefited the public.

It said having more women in parliaments would help build stronger climate commitments and higher levels of investment in healthcare and education.

“We need political progress through targeted measures that ensure women’s equal leadership and representation at all levels of political decision-making, through bold gender quotas.

“Gender inequality is essentially a question of power. Uprooting centuries of patriarchy demands that power is equally shared across every institution, at every level,” it said.