The COVID19 public health crisis has challenged governments worldwide, disrupted democratic processes, and required the marshalling of extensive state resources. In this virtual special issue, we feature five recent Politics & Gender articles that provide insights into our current and unprecedented political moment.

COVID19 has wreaked havoc on world economies. Across 68 countries and 20 years, Blanton, Blanton, and Peksen find for women, financial crises are associated with reduced participation in paid work, less presence in politics, declines in educational attainment, and worse health outcomes, in “The Gendered Consequences of Financial Crisis.”

These threats to health, security, and economic well-being are associated with rising anxiety as well. In “Moving beyond Categorical Gender in Studies of Risk Aversion and Anxiety,” Wӓngnerud, Solevid, and Djerf-Pierre find that among women, those who describe themselves as more feminine (caring, empathetic) are also more anxious. Men who described themselves as higher in masculine traits were not less anxious, however.

Christine Doonan’s analysis of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEDFAR) shows how a conservative social agenda inhibited the achievement of the goal of eradicating AIDS in the 2000s. As we confront another global health crisis, conflicting goals, conceptions of deservingness, and other incentives are likely to complicate government responses once again.

What makes governments take action on health and on women’s health needs in particular? Westfall and Chantiles, in “The Political Cure,” find that the increased presence of women legislators due to quotas is associated with better health conditions for women. Representation matters.

How we talk about health policy also matters. In “Framing Gender,” Winter shows how the debate about Clinton health reform proposals in the mid-1990s became increasingly gendered, in particular to the extent that they were focused on then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. As a result, while there had previously been no relationship, gender traditionalism was increasingly associated with opposition, and gender egalitarianism increasingly with support, of health care reform.