Giving Compass' Take:

• Matthew Lavietes explains that the COVID-19 pandemic will disproportionately impact women and may reverse progress on gender equality at work.

• What role can you play in ensuring progress is made for gender equality in work and beyond?  

• Learn how to support female leaders in the time of COVID-19. 

The coronavirus pandemic could wipe out "the modest progress" made on gender equality at work in recent decades with women globally at greater risk of losing their jobs, the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned on Tuesday.

The U.N. agency said the fall in global working hours was "significantly worse than previously estimated" in the first half of the year. The Americas was the hardest-hit region.

But it warned women were disproportionately affected, with almost 510 million women, or 40% of all employed women, working in the industries with most job losses compared to 36.6% of men, which includes food and accommodation, retail and real estate.

The ILO said women were also in greater danger of infection, and less likely to have social security coverage, as they make up the vast majority of domestic, health and social care workers globally who could lose jobs due to coronavirus lockdowns.

Read the full article about Covid-19 and gender equality at work by Matthew Lavietes at Thomson Reuters Foundation.