因为女性很可能首当其冲地承受与冠状病毒相关的衰退，脸书的雪莉·桑德伯格说，她认为全球健康危机是一个警钟，提醒这个国家解决长期存在的性别不平等。
“这种影响是毁灭性的，”桑德伯格告诉记者新闻周刊指着她的妇女组织“向内倾斜”的研究。“你知道他们怎么说永远不浪费危机吗？我们不需要浪费这个时间来解决女性面临的结构性问题。”
本周公布的调查显示，超过三分之一的女性报告称，由于冠状病毒爆发，她们被解雇、休假或减薪。有色人种女性之间的差距甚至更大，因为黑人女性报告这些财务问题的可能性是白人男性的两倍。
这并不是说在新型冠状病毒出现之前，经济不平等并不普遍。数据显示，女性的平均收入已经比男性少了20美分。有色人种女性的差距更大:黑人女性的收入是62美分，西班牙裔女性是54美分。在40年的职业生涯中，由于目前的薪酬差距，女性损失超过40万美元。
但是新的研究表明，全球健康危机可能会使事情变得更糟。西北大学、德国曼海姆大学和加州大学圣地亚哥分校的研究人员发表的一篇论文得出结论称，“COVID-19大流行将对女性及其就业机会产生不成比例的负面影响。”
利恩的研究呼应了这些发现:近三分之二的就业女性表示，如果失去个人收入，她们将无法支付超过三个月的基本生活必需品。接受调查的就业男性中，只有不到一半的人这么认为。
桑德伯格说:“这向我们展示了女性和有色人种女性的结构性不平等——薪酬较低，收入差距巨大，她们在家照顾孩子的时间更多，她们更容易受到家庭暴力的影响——这场危机加剧了这一切。”。
2020年4月4日，加利福尼亚州洛杉矶，一名妇女和一名儿童在冠状病毒大流行中走过关闭的市中心商店时戴着口罩。
上个月，国会通过了一项历史性的2万亿美元刺激计划，以帮助美国从冠状病毒大流行中复苏。这项立法有几项针对挣扎中的家庭和工人的关键条款，但没有包括任何缓解男女薪酬差距的内容。
在桑德伯格的政策愿望清单上？通过一项全民带薪家庭休假法案，一项带薪病假法案，并弥补工资差距。
“这些来自政府层面的项目旨在帮助最弱势群体。嗯，我们需要弄清楚谁是最脆弱的，最脆弱的往往是女性和有色人种，”她说。
至于脸书在危机中的角色，首席运营官表示，该公司正在“积极地”努力提供准确的信息，并删除被误导的帖子。她说，脸谱网一直在与世界卫生组织和美国疾病控制和预防中心合作创建其COVID-19信息中心。
这家社交媒体巨头还为世界各地的小企业创建了一个1亿美元的资助项目。其中不到一半的赠款，即4000万美元，被指定用于妇女、少数民族或退伍军人拥有的企业。
“我们知道我们资金雄厚。桑德伯格说:“我们有机会在我们所做的一切中支持小企业。“我们都需要尽自己的一份力量。”
LeanIn.org的调查结果来自于4月1日至4月3日在网上进行的一项名为“调查猴子”的受众调查，调查对象是居住在美国的2986名18岁及以上的成年人。调查的误差幅度为正负2个百分点。
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS ON WOMEN IS 'DEVASTATING' AND EXACERBATING GENDER INEQUALITY, SAYS FACEBOOK'S SHERYL SANDBERG
Because women are likely to bear the brunt of the coronavirus-related recession, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg said she sees the global health crisis as a wake-up call for the country to address long-existing gender inequalities.
"The impact is devastating," Sandberg told Newsweek, pointing to research from her women's organization Lean In. "You know how they say never waste a crisis? We need to not waste this moment to fix the structural problems that women face."
The survey, released this week, showed that more than a third of women report being laid off or furloughed, or receiving pay cuts because of the coronavirus outbreak. The disparity is even greater among women of color, as black women are twice as likely to report these financial issues as white men.
That's not to say that economic inequality wasn't prevalent long before the novel coronavirus appeared. Data shows women are already making 20 cents less on average for every dollar that a man earns. The difference is even greater for women of color: Black women earn 62 cents on the dollar and Hispanic women, 54 cents. Over the course of a 40-year career, women stand to lose more than $400,000 due to the current pay gap.
But the global health crisis is likely to make the matter far worse, new research indicates. A paper from researchers at Northwestern University, the University of Mannheim in Germany and the University of California, San Diego concluded that the "COVID-19 pandemic will have a disproportionate negative effect on women and their employment opportunities."
Lean In's research echoes those findings: Nearly two-thirds of employed women said that if they lost their personal income, they wouldn't be able to pay for basic necessities for more than three months. Fewer than half of employed men surveyed said the same.
"What this is showing us is that the structural inequities for women and women of color—there are lower-paying jobs, there is a massive pay gap, they do more child care at home, they are more susceptible to domestic violence—this crisis is exacerbating all of them," Sandberg said.
A woman and child wear face masks while walking past shuttered downtown shops amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 4, 2020, in Los Angeles, California.
Last month, Congress passed a historic $2 trillion stimulus package to help the nation rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation has a few key provisions for struggling families and workers but doesn't include anything to alleviate the gender pay disparity.
On the top of Sandberg's policy wish list? Passing a universal paid family leave bill, a paid sick leave bill and fixing the wage gap.
"These programs from the government level are designed to help the most vulnerable. Well, we need to be clear who the most vulnerable are and the most vulnerable are so often women and women of color," she said.
As for Facebook's role in the crisis, the COO said the company is "aggressively" working to provide accurate information and remove misguided posts. Facebook has been working with the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create its COVID-19 information center, she said.
The social media giant has also created a $100 million grant program for small businesses around the world. Slightly less than half of those grants, or $40 million, has been earmarked for businesses owned by women, minorities or veterans.
"We know we're well-funded. We have an opportunity to support small businesses in everything we do," Sandberg said. "We all need to do our part."
LeanIn.org's findings are from a SurveyMonkey Audience poll conducted online from April 1 to April 3 among a total sample of 2,986 adults ages 18 and over living in the United States. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 2 percentage points.
