Sammanfattning

COVID-19 and its associated disease control measures have greatly altered everyday life. The burden of these challenges has fallen disproportionately on women. Drawing on qualitative inquiry in agrarian north India and Nepal, this research note analyzes how South Asian COVID-19 lockdowns have affected women's labor responsibilities in sometimes surprising ways. We find increased responsibilities for caregiving within the household, substantial stress in responding to food insecurity, and growing expectations to fulfill public roles in disease response measures. However, we also find that the return of male migrants and youth has, in some cases, reduced women's farming responsibilities and created opportunities for household togetherness at a time of great uncertainty. We conclude that more research is needed to examine the nuanced aspects of COVID-19's gendered labor impacts to create comprehensive policy responses to address the multiple and sometimes conflicting effects the lockdown has had on agrarian women's informal labor and well-being.

Nyckelord

Care labor; policy; subsistence agriculture; India; Nepal; intra-household bargaining

Publicerad i

Politics and Gender
2020, Volym: 16, nummer: 4, artikelnummer: PII S1743923X20000483

SLU författare

• Fischer, Harry

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

SDG5 Uppnå jämställdhet och alla kvinnors och flickors egenmakt
SDG16 Främja fredliga och inkluderande samhällen för hållbar utveckling, tillhandahålla tillgång till rättvisa för alla samt bygga upp effektiva, och inkluderande institutioner med ansvarsutkrävande på alla nivåer


UKÄ forskningsämne

Genusstudier
Studier av offentlig förvaltning
Kulturgeografi


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X20000483

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/108041