Meghan Markle speaks up for women 'disproportionately affected' by COVID pandemic during 'Vax Live Concert'

Meghan Markle addressed the Global Citizen’s Vax Live: The Concert To Reunite The World with a special recorded message on Saturday. In the virtual speech, she began with, “The past year has been defined by communities coming together, tirelessly and heroically, to tackle COVID-19. We’ve gathered tonight because the road ahead is getting brighter, but it’s going to take every one of us to find our way forward,” the Duchess of Sussex said in her role as co-chair.

She emphasized on the fact that it is critical to recover from the pandemic for everyone—and “particularly women, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.”

“With the surge in gender-based violence, the increased responsibility of unpaid care work, and new obstacles that have reversed so much progress for women in the workplace, we’re at an inflection point for gender equity,” Meghan continued. “Women — especially women of colour — have seen a generation of economic gain wiped out. Since the pandemic began, nearly five and a half million women have lost work in the US, and 47 million more women around the world are expected to slip into extreme poverty.”

She urged the world leaders to provide the availability of “vaccines to every country and continent” so the world can “being to fully rebuild.”

“Not only to restore us to where we were before, but to go further…and rapidly advance the conditions, opportunity, and mobility for women everywhere,” she continued.

Meghan also shared her excitement about she and Prince Harry are expecting a daughter in early summer, they are already parents to Archie, 2.

“My husband and I are thrilled to soon be welcoming a daughter. It’s a feeling of joy we share with millions of other families around the world. When we think of her, we think of all the young women and girls around the world who must be given the ability—and support—to lead us forward,” Meghan said. “Their future leadership depends on the decisions we make and the actions we take now to set them up, and set all of us up, for a successful, equitable, and compassionate tomorrow.”

She also spoke about Archewell foundation is focused on building more compassionate communities, Markle, 39, added, “Tonight, we’ve had a reminder of the things we miss the most. Be it live music or sporting events, or just physical contact with family and friends where we can sit together, laugh together, and hug one another – it all circles back to the same thing: connecting as a community. For most of us, that means our local community, our loved ones, our neighborhood – but let’s also think about our global community. Across the world, we’ve struggled together. Now, we deserve to heal together.”

She concluded her speech, saying, “We want to make sure that as we recover, we recover stronger. That as we rebuild, we rebuild together.”

The Duke of Sussex attended the event in person and delivered a passionate speech calling for “empathy and compassion.”

Markle and Harry, 36, served as the campaign chairs of the star-studded show, which aimed to increase donations and share vaccine doses to priority populations around the world.