Abstract
This chapter focuses on depicting how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affects poor women in the Global South, through a case analysis of Colombia. Colombian society is characterized by inequality, poverty, and lack of basic human guaranties for the larger part of its population. This chapter concentrates on showing how three structural factors combine with specific features of the pandemic to increase subordination, suffering, and violence on Colombian women. These three factors are the ongoing armed conflict, the patriarchal structure of Colombia (as in other South American countries), and domestic violence. The chapter shows how this reflects public policies of distribution of resources, social participation, education, and human rights.
The local social workers experience great challenges, even more in pandemic times, and must be present on multiple fronts. They are in direct contact with communities, social leaders, women, children, and whole families. It is a real demand to empower and protect women in violent situations because of the lockdown and social isolation. Social help networks and contacts with friends are minimized. Many economic, health, and emotional problems must be resolved. Thus, social workers should contribute to the public politics, proposing new care routes and protocols in pandemic times.
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Notes
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- 2.
“In its Judgment C-644/12, the Constitutional Court defines food security as the degree of guarantee that the entire population must have, to be able to have timely and permanent access to food that meets their nutritional requirements, trying to reduce the external dependence and taking into account the conservation and balance of the ecosystem for the benefit of future generations.” (https://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2012/C-644-12.htm).
- 3.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/colombia-pueblos-indigenas-covid19-hambre/, access 8 of June 2020.
- 4.
Análisis de Situación de Salud (ASIS). (2018). Dirección de Epidemiologia y demografía (p. 117). Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, Bogotá.
- 5.
Ibíd.: p. 255.
- 6.
According to the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), between December 2019 and February 2020 the informal occupation for men was 45.2% and for women 48.6% (https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/mercado-laboral/empleo-informal-y-seguridad-social).
- 7.
Law 1468 of July 2011.
- 8.
https://colombiareports.com/unemployment-among-colombias-women-70-higher-than-among-men/, access 23 of February 2021.
- 9.
Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International.
- 10.
https://www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/ColombiaMujeres06sp/III.htm, access 28 of May 2021.
- 11.
McKinsey Global Institute. (2020). COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/covid-19-and-gender-equality-countering-the-regressive-effects#.
- 12.
A GINI coefficient of 50 represents 50% concentration in a country’s income distribution; that could mean, that half the people share all the income, while the other half get nothing, or only a small part. See: http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/methodology.aspx: “To measure poverty in the developing world as a whole, the World Bank’s “$1 a day” measures apply a common standard, anchored to what “poverty” means in the world’s poorest economies. The original “$1-a-day” line was based on a compilation of national lines for only 22 developing economies, mostly from academic studies in the 1980s (Ravallion et al., 1991). (…). Since October 2015, the World Bank uses a poverty line of $1.90 a day at 2011 PPP to estimate global poverty. This new poverty line (referred to as the International Poverty Line) is the average of the same 15 national poverty lines that yielded the $1.25 line at 2005 PPPs (Ferreira et al., 2016).
- 13.
https://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/SI.POV.GINI, access 8 of June 2020.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
See about the disadvantage and barriers facing women: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/women-progress-and-hurdles-advanced-economies-by-laura-tyson-and-anu-madgavkar-2020-04, access 12 of June 2020.
- 19.
- 20.
In Colombia social leader means “líder social” and that is a person who fights for the human rights, for justice and equality. The “Lideres Sociales” try to build a bridge between their community and the government.
- 21.
http://www.indepaz.org.co/paz-al-liderazgo-social/, access 25 May 2020.
- 22.
https://somosdefensores.org/2021/05/20/la-mala-hora/, access 26 May 2021.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
https://www.elespectador.com/colombia2020/territorio/el-rebrote-del-conflicto-armado-en-el-caribe/, accessed on 10 June 2020.
- 27.
- 28.
See about the Colombian case in the UN Report WOMEN AND MEN: GENDER GAPS IN COLOMBIA. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, and DANE (2020), p. 17 and up.
- 29.
- 30.
- 31.
- 32.
Gender Implications of COVID-19 Outbreaks in Development and Humanitarian Settings. CARE.
- 33.
Apoyo a la respuesta nacional en VBG en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19. (2020, 1). Fondo de Población de las Naciones Unidas (UNFPA), UNU Mujeres.
- 34.
https://colombia.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Comunicado%20UNFPA-ONU%20MUJERES.pdf, p.2, access 29 May 2021.
- 35.
- 36.
Recovered from the Regional Programme for the Formation of the Diploma in Gender and Justice (PRIGEPP http://prigepp.org).
- 37.
Wrongful gender stereotyping is a frequent cause of discrimination against women. It is a contributing factor in violations of a vast array of rights such as the right to health, adequate standard of living, education, marriage and family relations, work, freedom of expression, freedom of movement, political participation and representation, effective remedy, and freedom from gender-based violence. https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/women/wrgs/pages/genderstereotypes.aspx. Accessed on 29 of May 2021.
- 38.
http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/informes/pdfs/violencia-discriminacion-mujeres-Anexo1-es.pdf, p.17, accessed on 28 May 2021.
- 39.
https://www.observatoriofeminicidioscolombia.org, accessed on 29 of May 2021.
- 40.
http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2020/074.asp, accessed on 12 of June 2020.
- 41.
In Colombia we have six Estratos (stratums), Estrato 1 belongs to the poorest and vulnerable people, Estrato 6 the richest.
- 42.
Violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas: La recopilación de datos en el contexto del COVID-19 (2020, 3). ONU Mujeres, Organización Mundial de Salud.
- 43.
Gender-based violence.
- 44.
Apoyo a la respuesta nacional en VBG en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19 (2020).
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Mauersberger, M. (2022). Colombian Women Between the Pandemic and Armed Conflict and Poverty. In: Gonçalves, M.d.C.d.S., Gutwald, R., Kleibl, T., Lutz, R., Noyoo, N., Twikirize, J. (eds) The Coronavirus Crisis and Challenges to Social Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84678-7_17
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