This chapter analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender disparities in the southern African region. It explores the extent and channels through which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected gender inequality. The analysis provides significant evidence for a “she-cession”: the pandemic economically affected women disproportionately relative to men. In South Africa, employment, hours worked, and incomes for women were more negatively affected than for men. In Namibia and Eswatini, women were less likely to be employed during the pandemic and were more likely to have lost employment due to the pandemic. In Lesotho, women were less likely to be formally employed than men during the pandemic. This chapter provides evidence supporting women’s heavier unpaid work burden and occupational gender segregation as transmission channels and that business employment acted as a countercyclical shock absorber for women in South Africa and Lesotho.