A look into why gender-sensitive responses matter.
Sahana1 applies a thick coat of foundation over her blackened eye – a scarring reminder of her intoxicated husband’s – expected -- outburst last night. A continent away, Rafiya2 holds on to the last few morsels of tinned fish for the week. Being a sex worker in her locality, food aid can be hard to come by. And with signs of infection on the cards, Valentin3 grapples with the decision to loosen his chest binding; the odds did not work in his favour. A few borders away, a single mother, Geetha, begs to have her job back.
The truth that COVID-19 impacts all genders is a seed that states and decision-makers
find difficult to digest. Therein, it goes without saying that the need for
gender-sensitive response mechanisms to fight a deadly pandemic has become palpably
clear.
Gender inequality is both universal and multi-dimensional. But the
political, social and economic workings of gender between the global North and
the global South have obvious demarcations.
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that countries with
higher gender parity scores positively correlate with higher levels of
development. In other words, social indicators often go hand in hand with
economic ones.
According to the Institute, the five impact zones that pervade the
global South, in particular, are low labour-force participation in quality
jobs, low maternal and reproductive health, unequal education levels, financial
and digital exclusion, and girl-child vulnerability.4
Are economic indicators the only obstacle in the way of closing the
gender gap in the global South? Certainly not. Culture has a significant role
to play in perpetuating patriarchal norms and institutions. Despite progress in
the developed world, the global South has not trodden far in terms of reforming
the laws they inherited by their colonizers. Unsurprisingly, these age-old
legal systems inevitably influence the societies they govern. Thereby, the
systemic oppression of women, violent notions of masculinity, male control over
resources and gender-based violence become the norm.
A study by Northwestern University indicates that a woman is much less
likely to influence household decisions, enroll in college, enjoy the freedom
of choice and join the workforce if she hails from a developing country. The
same woman, on the contrary, is more likely to face impunity for being a victim
of gender-based violence.5
These patterns of inequality are part of a bigger picture. In the face
of COVID -19, the collateral damage that comes with it has not only become
palpably clear but marks a clarion call for leaders of developing states to
adopt a gender-inclusive lens in addressing the pandemic.
Spikes in domestic abuse and intimate-partner
violence
The number of calls reporting domestic abuse to
support centers during the Covid-19 outbreak has doubled in most countries,
according to the UN. As much of the world goes into lockdown, abusive
households can make women feel trapped and helpless. Regrettably, attitudes
towards domestic violence in the developing world are beyond the pale.
36% of people from mid to low-income countries think that domestic
violence is justified, according to a survey conducted by the University of
Bristol.6
To break down the findings of this survey even further, 47% of people
from South Asia and 38% percent from Sub-Saharan Africa said that domestic
abuse is excusable. These are mind-boggling numbers.
The feasibility of long-term response mechanisms varies across regions.
For example, the same interventions designed for a country in a Nordic state
may not necessarily adapt well in a low-income country that just witnessed the
end of civil conflict. The pandemic is one of several crises in which states
witness an increase in domestic violence cases. In the past, cases spiked
during and after a natural disaster, the end of civil conflict or during
economic recessions. Psychologists point to the common thread that runs through
all these incidents; men project their need for power and authority over their
wives or partners to feel more in control. To this end, domestic abuse and
intimate partner violence is very much about securing power and gaining control.
As leaders grapple to address the spike in domestic abuse cases with
code words and helplines, the urgent need to push for legislation and long-term
interventions are clear. However, policy-makers and those at the top must keep
the following in mind.
In the age of women-only carriages in public
transport, crisis communications apps and anti-rape devices,7 the
need to shift our intervention methods from victim-centered to that of
normative change and holding perpetrators to account, are paramount. Policy-makers
and activists at the forefront of creating change deserve applause for the
short-term mechanisms that have been successfully adopted but are often caught up
with the want to see an immediate change that efforts to challenge traditional
notions of masculinity and rehabilitate perpetrators are often ignored or ‘set
aside’ for later. Such measures can
positively translate into boys and men becoming allies to the feminist cause,
community mobilization, adopting gender-conscious syllabi in all levels of
education and other forms of long-term strategies.
Impact on LGBT+ communities
The point previously
made on low economic indicators and a culture built on patriarchal values and
its positive correlation with gender inequality deserves reminding. Law
enforcement in the Philippines, for instance, uses humiliation as a punitive
measure against the LGBT community to enforce public health measures. Human
Rights Watch reports of dehumanizing acts that force them to dance or kiss on
video; a disturbing image that reveals the need for better oversight and
accountability.8 Miles away, in Uganda, police arrest those at a
shelter serving for LGBT people in Kampala. Their justification? Being guilty
of “negligent acts likely to spread infection of disease.” 9
“Minorities of any category, much less the
LGBT community, have always been subject to discrimination. Social stigma
prevents LGBT people to secure employment and therefore, they often become daily-wage
earners and sometimes join the sex worker industry,” remarked Rosanna
Flamer-Caldera, an LGBT+ activist and Executive Director of Equal Ground Sri
Lanka. “During crises situation such as the present Covid-19 pandemic, the
challenges that an LGBT person faces is magnified a thousand-fold.” She also
pointed out that in the recent past, thirteen of fifteen calls made to the
support line set up by Equal Ground were inquiries of a perverse nature and not
ones that conveyed a genuine need for emotional help. Additionally, to be
constrained in a house during curfew with a family that does not accept you can
be a huge burden on one’s mental health.
Civil society organizations need to work in solidarity
with the LGBT+ community to not only ensure that emotional support is provided
to those who need it, but that they also have equal access to healthcare
services as well as other necessities as anybody else.
The plight of sex workers
Those in the sex worker
industry constantly grapple with the burden of either being invisible in the
eyes of the public or completely marginalized with regard to rapid response
measures of COVID -19. Much of the global South adopts restrictive laws that
criminalize sex work. Sex workers, whether male or female, are often forced to
take to the streets due to homelessness and societal prejudice.
“The government’s response, in the face of this
outbreak, to our plight as sex workers have been disappointing. They promise
many things, but once they find out our profession, we are cornered and discriminated,”
says Maheswari, a 48-year-old mother who works as a sex worker in Sri Lanka and
advocates for their basic rights.
Speaking to her, it became increasingly clear that wider
coverage by the media and stronger support by community organizations can do
much to pressure governments to reform laws that criminalize sex work. For her
and many others, aid and relief efforts are cut off due to the heavy stigma
associated with their profession. “I don’t want anyone’s sympathy right now,”
she said “only legal reform that stops equating us with criminals,” she
concluded. Additionally, as relief efforts focus on various vulnerable
communities, sex workers are often seen as undeserving of food aid and other
necessities. From having no access to a fair trial to being unable to admit her
children in a school, the stigma facing both males and females like Maheswari is
harrowing.
Working mothers and the division of labour
Despite efforts by employers
to create flexible work environments, the burden that falls on a working mother
as she ‘works from home’ while juggling child care and household chores deserve
serious attention. Most societies imbued in patriarchal norms dictate that
responsibilities like child care, cooking and cleaning are a woman’s ‘job.’ For
mothers that have to take care of elderly parents in addition to their
children, the burden is ten-fold. A report by the Asia Pacific wing of the
Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group points to the fact that women are
at an even greater risk as food insecurity looms in the backdrop of most
developing states.10 As the onus falls on women to provide food on
the table and care for the children, self-isolation and lockdowns can increase
their exposure to gender-based violence when these (gendered) expectations are
not met.
Similarly, single mothers are at an increased risk of
struggling to make ends meet especially at a time where most employees face job
insecurity and unexpected lay-offs. School closures and the inability to send
their kids to daycare can cause severe burnout and mental health problems.
Psycho-social support and concessionary loans can be
incredibly helpful during and in the immediate aftermath of the COVID -19
outbreak.
Parting thoughts
Not too long ago, the
Covid-19 epidemic was understood as a temporary stumbling block in outlying
Wuhan. As long as the rest of the world was concerned, it was an invisible
virus that was rather mistakenly understood as “not that big a deal.” Come
March 2020, the pandemic spread like wildfire. States with colossal defense
budgets are suddenly lacking in hospital beds and life support equipment. Capitalism
has reached a standstill and the so-called ‘Third World’ struggles to fund the
fight against an invisible enemy.
 |
| Source: businessinsider.com |
If there is one
lesson to be learned, it is that Covid-19 certainly does discriminate. It
discriminates against norms and institutions that favour the archetypal
patriarchy. Public health measures have become increasingly militarized and
gendered politics are still the norm. A better understanding of the
intersectional nature of the gendered impacts discussed thus far and better,
context-specific and long term strategies built on normative change will
certainly lead the global South to the kind of change they seek to witness in
this lifetime.
References
1
Meaning: Patience
2
Meaning: Dignified
3
Meaning: Strong healthy
4
Mekala Krishnan,
“Miles to Go: Stepping up Progress toward Gender Equality,” McKinsey &
Company, accessed April 8, 2020,
www.mckinsey.com/mgi/overview/in-the-news/miles-to-go-stepping-up-progress-toward-gender-equality)
5
Seema Jayachandran, “The Roots of
Gender Inequality in Developing Countries,” Annual Reviews, February 20,
2015, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-080614-115404)
6
“Domestic Violence Is Widely Accepted in
Most Developing Countries, New Study Reveals,” ScienceDaily (ScienceDaily,
October 31, 2018), www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181031141437.htm)
8
Ryan Thoreson, “Philippines Uses Humiliation as
COVID Curfew Punishment,” Human Rights Watch, April 8, 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/08/philippines-uses-humiliation-covid-curfew-punishment
9
Neela Ghoshal, “Uganda LGBT Shelter
Residents Arrested on COVID-19 Pretext,” Human Rights Watch, April 3, 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/03/uganda-lgbt-shelter-residents-arrested-covid-19-pretext
10 “The COVID-19
Outbreak and Gender: Key Advocacy Points from Asia and the Pacific,” Asia-Pacific
Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group, accessed April 7, 2020,
https://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field office
eseasia/docs/publications/2020/03/ap-giha-wg-advocacy.pdf?la=en&vs=2145
About the Author
Renushi Ubeyratne is a gender justice advocate majoring in International Relations at the University of Colombo.
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