Social activities, basic services and support to vulnerable groups: South African government women's empowerment and gender equity responses to COVID-19: chapter 6: interim country report
OUTPUT TYPE: Research report- client
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2020
TITLE AUTHOR(S): C.Ndinda, M.Ngungu, P.Adebayo, B.Moolman, C.Chimbwete, I.Lynch, M.Shozi
KEYWORDS: COVID-19, EMPOWERMENT, GENDER EQUALITY, WOMEN
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES), Public Health, Societies and Belonging (HSC)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 11948
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/16016
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/16016
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2020
TITLE AUTHOR(S): C.Ndinda, M.Ngungu, P.Adebayo, B.Moolman, C.Chimbwete, I.Lynch, M.Shozi
KEYWORDS: COVID-19, EMPOWERMENT, GENDER EQUALITY, WOMEN
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES), Public Health, Societies and Belonging (HSC)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 11948
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/16016
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/16016
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Gender equality is entrenched in the South African Constitution, and women's empowerment is a priority of the post-apartheid government. However, achieving gender equity remains a challenge. Even before COVID-19, impediments to women's empowerment and gender equity persisted. Women are oppressed in various ways; the differences among them in terms of race, class, ethnicity and sexuality help explain the extent of their marginalisation. Government interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic sought to ensure that gains in women's empowerment and gender equity would not be eroded. However, while some government interventions made reference to women and gender, most regulations used gender-neutral language and so amplified women's marginalisation. Women' already marginal position in the economy also meant that few could access the various government measures intended to alleviate the impact of the pandemic. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic had a particularly negative effect on women in terms of employment, gender-based violence, and access to housing and health services. Gender-mainstreaming of government interventions needs to be operationalised in a way that shows how key variables in women's lives intersect in complex ways to shape their experience of exclusion and marginalisation. It is no longer feasible to continue using the single lens approach that identifies patriarchy as the only basis of women's oppression and gender inequality, while ignoring deeply entrenched racial inequality. There is an urgent need to understand the differences among women in South Africa and to take these differences into account when implementing programmes and interventions during disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic.-
Related Research Outputs:
- South African government women's empowerment and gender equity responses to COVID-19
- Gender and rural vitality: empowerment through women's community groups
- Dedication to Ronald Louw
- Millennium development goals report: goal 3: gender equality and empowerment of women
- Millennium Development Goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women 2015
- Deconstructing women, peace and security: a critical review of approaches to gender and empowerment
- Is a woman's place still in the home?: gender-role attitudes and women's position in the South African labour market
- South Africa's multilevel 'Shecession'
- Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), COVID-19 and marginalised groups
- Thinking ethically about women, power and land in South Africa
- Counting women?: gendered sustainability and inclusivity for an ocean account framework: a literature review
- State of gender in Gauteng Province 2014-2019: a review of women's empowerment and gender equality
- Childcare and depression during the coronavirus pandemic in South Africa: a gendered analysis
- The socio-economic, health and gender impact of Covid-19 on youth (16-35 years old) beneficiaries of DSD programmes
- Empowerment and transformation in South Africa
- Whose right it is anyway? equality, culture and conflicts of rights in South Africa
- Empowerment through economic transformation
- The empowerment challenge: not yet Uhuru?
- Crime, violence and public health
- Rethinking gender, empowerment and development