HIST 3033: The Gendered Implications of COVID-19
By Shade Springer, Student HIST 3033 Race, Gender and Medicine Department of History and Philosophy The UWI, Cave Hill Campus Is there a heavier burden being placed on female health practitioners, general workers and caregivers both on the frontlines in the health sector and in quarantine at home in the wake of “stay-at-home” orders? As COVID-19 sweeps across the globe, one of its most significant victims may very well be feminism. As Sam Smethers remarks, the wider implications of the lockdown gender divide are clear; “This shows that the default assumptions about who does the caring for children fundamentally haven’t shifted. It defaults to women. There’s an expectation that women will make their jobs fit around the caring, whereas a man’s job will come first” (Ferguson) . Indeed, there is a heavier burden being placed on female health practitioners, general workers and caregivers both on the frontlines in the health sector and in quarantine at home in the wake of “stay-at-h...