The suffering of women during the coronavirus pandemic illuminates where feminists need to push harder. Medicare for All, free higher education and a living wage, and a housing and job guarantee would go far in giving women the autonomy necessary to protect themselves and their children.
Malaysia’s Ministry for Women, Family, and Community Development had a vital message for women during the pandemic: Wear makeup and nice clothes while working at home and in the interest of domestic harmony please don’t nag your husband about helping out around the house.
The ham-fisted “educational” posters, complete with cartoons depicting what a pleasing wife looks like, would be laughable if they didn’t signify the dark reality of life for many women during the coronavirus crisis.
The suffering and vulnerabilities the world’s women are experiencing during the pandemic are highly contextual, but there are few common threads. A major source of pain is that millions of women around the world have lost their already meager source of income. In both rich and poor countries, women are overrepresented in low-paid work — jobs that have been quickly lost amid social-distancing efforts, leaving women, many of whom were already living at the poverty line, with no way to buy food or pay their bills.
While millions of women have been thrown out of work, many are still working. Low-paid retail and service jobs have been classified as essential work, and many women who staff them, particularly single mothers, simply can’t afford to stay home even for a short time despite the danger of infection and death. These women (and men) are at risk for extra, pandemic-related abuse and safety violations. In India, for example, women make up the vast majority of the low-paid, front-line health care workers who are going house to house check on families, often without basic protective equipment.
To read the entire article from Jacobin, click https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/04/covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-feminism
