Published: Share: To mark International Womenâs Day 2021, the S&D Group held a two-day online event : Covid-19: Overcoming new Challenges to Gender Equality, organised in the frame of the Sixth Progressive Youth Forum, in co-operation with our partners PES Women, FEPS, FES, YES and EWL.  Following a day of workshops on Thursday for young people, the S&D MEPs working on gender equality issues and the EU Commissioner for equality, Helena Dalli, discussed today on how to tackle the negative impact of the Covid-19 crisis on women, and better build back gender equality. The S&Ds sounded the alarm: a year since the start of the pandemic, we have increasing evidence showing that the Covid-19 crisis threatens to jeopardise decades of gains achieved in gender equality, because women are dropping out of the labour market, and traditional gender roles are being reinforced. Women are harder hit by the outbreak and fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic than men, and even harder than by the 2008 financial crisis, because this time, especially precarious work and sectors in which women make up the majority are affected