COVID-19 and women’s intersectionalities in Africa
Edited by Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz & Adetokunbo Johnson
2023
ISBN: 978-1-7764117-5-7
Pages: 320
Print version: Available
Electronic version: Free PDF available
About the publication
COVID-19 has become one of the most severe issues dominating discussions on the agendas of states globally, and across the African continent, since its emergence in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has regrettably brought into sharp focus the continued multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by women and girls in Africa because of their intersecting identities. Yet, paradoxically, although African women are disproportionately affected by the crisis, they are largely invisible in the responses. Several African states and governments have taken different policy measures in response to the pandemic. These responses have taken different dimensions, including shutting down economies, imposition of lockdowns, coercive quarantine measures with police enforcement and criminal consequences for offenders violating these rules. Unfortunately, these responses have reinforced and amplified women’s disproportionate disadvantage and gender inequalities in Africa. Against this backdrop, this book asks the intersectional question about women’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. Applying an intersectional human rights lens involves questioning how the intersecting identities that African women embody affect their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Disclaimer
Contributors
List of abbreviations
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
1. COVID-19 and women’s intersectionalities in Africa
Adetokunbo Johnson and Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz
PART TWO: COVID-19 AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS FROM AN INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
2. Women’s rights and the gender digital divide in Africa’s COVID-19 era
Adetokunbo Johnson
3. Protection of the right to health of women living with HIV/AIDS during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda
Charlotte Kabaseke
4. Human rights implications of COVID-19 responses in Africa: Exploring African women’s intersectional experiences of sexual and gender based violence
Sandra Bhatasara and Manase K Chiweshe
5. Unsheltered: The rise of gender-based violence in Nigeria and South Africa during COVID-19
Rita Ozoemena and Taiye Joshua
PART THREE: WOMEN IN SITUATIONS OF VULNERABILITIES AND COVID-19
6. COVID-19 and its implications on girl’s education in marginalised communities in Kenya: The case of Maasai girls in Kenya
Esther Njieassam and Linda Mushoriwa
7. Accessibility of Nigeria’s COVID-19 response measures to women and girls with disabilities
Anwuli I Ofuani -Sokolo
8. African governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: The impact on lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans women
Robert A Amoafo and Rita A Nketiah
9. Inclusive COVID-19 economic policy responses to assist returnee women migrant domestic workers trafficked from Kenya to Gulf Cooperation Council states for labour exploitation
Matilda Lasseko-Phooko
10. The social protection of informal female migrant workers in South Africa amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: An intersectional analysis of gender, class and migration status
Ropafadzo Maphosa
11. A multidimensional and intersectional analysis of COVID-19 on women in the informal economy in South Africa
Isaac B Khambule
12. COVID-19 and older women’s rights in Mauritius
Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz