Exploring women's gendered experiences of sexual reproductive health during a pandemic: Intergenerational reflections. Issue 4 (2nd October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chauke, Tinyiko; Segalo, Puleng
• Is Part Of: Agenda. Volume 35:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 151
• Page End: 160
• Publication Date: 2021-10-02
• Subjects: coronavirus -- gender -- economy -- culture -- health -- intersections; Feminism -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Africa -- Periodicals; Gender mainstreaming -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Gender mainstreaming -- Africa -- Periodicals; Sexism -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Sexism -- Africa -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 305.4
• DOI: 10.1080/10130950.2022.2035937
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1013-0950

Abstract

Abstract: The coronavirus (COVID-19) global crisis is reminiscent of other pandemics plaguing the African continent. Scholarly work on pandemics in Africa evidence that discourses on pandemics are driven by capitalism, modernisation and globalisation interfering with women's daily experiences of gender and sexuality. In so doing, the prevailing gender and class disparities among the continent's most marginalised population are amplified. We contend that pandemics remain feminised in Africa and that this feminisation needs to be understood from a historical perspective. Furthermore, it is critical to note and get an understanding of the history of pandemics in developing countries. In this briefing we pay attention to the lived experiences of Nkomazi women and the ways in which they frame their understanding and navigation of sexual reproductive health and its intersecting inequalities in the context of the HIV pandemic and pre-COVID-19. Emerging from women's narratives were themes related to food insecurity closely followed by social security, which accelerated some young women's initiation and involvement in transactional sex relationships. To elicit the themes, we utilised a qualitative inquiry to explore the intergenerational narratives of 20 Nkomazi women to understand their negotiated experiences and meanings of gender and its intersections through South Africa's most tumultuous political period and shifting socio-political terrains. We drew from decolonial and African feminist frameworks to interrogate the colonial tradition of the State's historical and contemporary emergency responses to pandemics. We conclude by challenging the claim that the impact of COVID-19, as with other pandemics, does not discriminate based on race, age, gender, socio-economic status and geographic location. Instead, pandemics exacerbate the widening inequality gap. We point to how these intersectionalities accentuate the gender blindness of global and local health governance in contexts of public health emergencies.