A newly released compendium, Feminism and COVID-19: How Women Fare in the Face of a Global Crisis , is revealing how women across the world were simultaneously critical for the success of the global COVID-19 response, and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic’s secondary effects, such as lost income, and increased unpaid care work and violence.
Book co-editors, Dr. Julia Smith of Simon Fraser University and Dr. Clare Wenham from the London School of Economics, gathered together a unique multidisciplinary and transnational team of authors and experts who examined nine case studies of the COVID-19 response and its global and local impacts on women from Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Hong Kong, Kenya, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
“To facilitate pandemic preparedness, we now must learn from the past,” says Smith. “These case studies include a multitude of lessons on how to insure those at the center of pandemic response – i.e., women – are also protected from its worst effects.”
Feminism and COVID-19 has received much praise. Dr. Jennifer Piscopo, a professor at the University of London, commented that “[t]his remarkable volume about COVID-19 policies in diverse countries and territories shows that, rather that creating ruptures leading to transformational change, health emergencies actually reinscribe patriarchy and intersectional inequalities.”
Feminism and COVID-19 is published by The MIT Press.
Chapters and authors featured in Feminism and COVID-19: How Women Fare in the Face of a Global Crisis
Unbalanced Scales: Exploring the Impacts of the Unequal Burden of Responsibilities Borne by Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Selima Sara Kabir, Moumita Islam, Amal Chowdhury, Nazia Mahmud, and Sabina Faiz Rashid
“It Is the Woman Who Has to Do Everything, Paid or Unpaid”: Work, Gender, and COVID-19 in Brazil
Mariela Rocha, Aponira Maria de Farias, Brunah Schall, Eduardo Ryo Tamaki, Paloma Porto, Paulo Silva Júnior, Flora Gonçalves, and Denise Nacif Pimenta
“A Double-Edged Sword”: Lived Experiences of Recent Immigrant Women in British Columbia, Canada, during COVID-19
Alice Mũrage and Julia Smith
“Because I Am a Woman, the Man Think They Need to Protect Me”: Gendered Experience of First Responders to COVID-19 in China
Connie C. R. Gan and Sara E. Davies
“We Want to Improve the Situation, but It’s Not under Our Control”: Gendered Risks, Impacts, and Response in Hong Kong
Ingrid D. Lui and Karen A. Grépin
“Since They Call Us Volunteers, There Is No Support at All”: Community Health Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kenya
Anne Ngunjiri, Robinson Karuga, Linet Okoth, and Lillian Otiso
“We the Women Do a Lot of Support”: Experiences of Women Market Traders, Women Living in Slums, and Women with Disabilities in Lagos, Nigeria, during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Amy Oyekunle, Uche Ralph-Opara, Patience Agada, and Oluwakemi Odukoya
“I Feel Like I’ve Been Left at ‘Good Luck. Hopefully, Nothing Goes Wrong’”: The Experiences of Pregnant Women during COVID-19 in the UK
Asha Herten Crabb, Karen Grépin, and Clare Wenham
Women’s Economic and Social Vulnerability to the Pandemic: Lessons from Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nigeria
Valerie Mueller, Nicole Wu, Atonu Rabbani, and Karen Grépin
Gender-Responsive Pandemic Planning
Heang-Lee Tan, Kate Hawkins, Erica Rosser, Julia Smith, Clare Wenham, and Rosemary Morgan