Women, pandemics and the Global South: an introductory overview

EPOL’s Special Issue on Women, Pandemics and the Global South brings some unique features to our understanding of the COVID-19 effects which have not been covered by prior work. To begin with, our opening paper by Bina Agarwal provides a conceptual framework that traces the complexity of potential effects. This includes not only the direct effects but also the indirect ones, and not only the immediate effects but also those likely to emerge in the long term. Previous special issues of journals on gender and COVID focused overwhelmingly on women’s unpaid care work, to the neglect of many other effects.Footnote2 Also, none of the other special issues were devoted to women in the Global South.