**1. Introduction**

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the mental health and wellbeing of many vulnerable groups [1] of which women are among those most heavily affected [2]. Although COVID-19 seems to hit men harder than women, based on the fact that fatality rate for men who have contracted virus is 60–80% higher than for women [3], its continual spread around the world has severely impacted on women [3–5]. This severe effect is largely manifested through lockdown situations, which apart from affecting women's employability, have also exacerbated risks of violence, exploitation, abuse, or harassment against women [6]. The assumption regarding the severe effect of the pandemic on women is based on the fact that any global/national/local emergence is a risk factor that tends to escalate gender-based violence (GBV) [1, 4, 5], of which COVID-19 is no exception. In this perspective, United Nations Population Fund [7] in conjunction with European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights [8] projected that gender-based violence

has increased due to COVID-19 lockdown making it difficult for women to have safe shelter and support.

Hence, the reality is that the restriction of movement as governments' containment measure to control the spread of the virus has compelled women/girls to spend longer period of time with their perpetrators, resulting in sustained experience of greater gender-based violence, exploitation, abuse, or harassment [3, 9]. Put in another form, the UNFPA has warned that women are more likely to face domestic violence behind closed doors during lockdown due to Government restrictions on movement, that is "the stay at home" measures to curb the spread of the disease, especially at a period when counseling and support services may be limited [10].

In this chapter, GBV is presented as the outcome of unequal and unjust social conditions based on gender relations [11], facilitated by the limited mobility during the COVID-19 safety protocol across the globe [9, 12–14]. Tentatively, the hub of the risk factor escalating the increased GBV experience for women is leveled on the nationwide lockdown safety protocol. Hence, this chapter focuses on exploring how confinement to the home environment has contributed to the increased gender-based violence that women encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on their mental health.

As part of the presentation, the chapter makes some recommendations, proposing that women become more proactive in terms of self-protection. In addition, policy makers ought to device further ways of ensuring that perpetrators of GBV are re-oriented toward self-transformation in order to foster safer environment for promoting dignity for all.

## **2. The global narratives**

Across the globe, there were increased narratives revealing incidences of GBV within the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The report from United States reflects that there was significant increase in gender-based violence and domestic violence during the period of COVID-19 lockdown. For instance, UN Women Australia global report emphasized that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, one out of every three women/girls experienced gender-based violence, but during the pandemic, the situation worsened to one out of every two women/girls [15]. UN Women/UN Women Count report affirms such recordings indicating that women encounter GBV directly or indirectly during the COVID-19 pandemic [5]. Furthermore, UNFPA reported that although the lockdowns, curfews and other restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic were measures taken to increase the safety of all, these measures were rather sources of increased risk of violence and death for women/girls [15]. The report went further to express that the number of women/girls aged 15–49 years who experienced sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner before the pandemic were 243 million across the globe [15]. But within the context of the pandemic, the figures have almost doubled [16, 17]. However, these figures may change after the pandemic, though that might not be certain.

The report emphasized that the exacerbating factors were due to security, health and money worries, cramped living conditions, isolation from abusers, movement restrictions, and deserted public spaces [15]. Whatever the reasons were, the essential fact is that women/girls' mental health was gravely impacted upon and such is worrisome. In a more recent document, UN Women and UNDP report stated that COVID-19 has deepened a trio of interlocking crises that threaten women and girls around the

#### *Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on Women's Mental Health: A Critical Review of Literature DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109109*

world [4, 5], as could be seen in spiking levels of gender-based violence, steep losses of employment, and unmanageable increase on unpaid work care. Interestingly, these three levels of threats are very important. But this chapter strictly addresses the issue of increased levels of gender-based violence in terms of reviewing published research that reports gender-based violence during the pandemic and its impact on women's mental health and what possible options women and the wider society ought to engage in, in order to tackle such a menace [18].

Focusing on global statistics, specific narratives across nations are not encouraging; for instance, the statistics from Brazil show an increased incidence of domestic violence to the tone of 40–50% during the pandemic period [19]. In France, in addition, the report says that there is a 30% increase, and the report from Spain indicates an 18% increase [20, 21]. Across the Arab world, it was noted that GBV rates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in many Arabic countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq [22–24]. In the Palestinian context, it has been reported that 37% of women were exposed to violence, while 58.6% of them experienced psychological violence, 23.5% encountered physical violence, 11.8% had sexual violence, 54.8% encountered social violence, and 55.1% encounter economic violence [25]. For China, the police reports of domestic violence were three times higher in February 2020 compared to reports from the previous year [26]. In Africa, the story is not different, and the report expresses that there is increase in gender-based violence during the heat of the pandemic [12, 14, 27]. The situation in Nigeria reflects the global trend of increased gender-based violence. GBV is reported to have significantly increased since the lockdown began in the three most affected areas (Lagos State, FCT, and Ogun State) by March 30, 2020 [12]. The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team [28] reported a threefold increase in the number of telephone calls received through their hotlines in 1 month. In particular, service providers have reported sharp increases in cases of intimate partner violence and domestic violence.

The reality is that, in the face of such daunting experiences, women/girls are caught in the continuous web of ever struggling for equity as expressed in SDG goals. Therefore, this chapter particularly focuses on exploring the different forms of gender-based violence women/girls encountered during the pandemic as reflected in published articles between the years 2020 and 2022. However, particular attention is paid to African context based on the author's research interest and location.
