Gender Research 4 COVID 19

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), in conjunction with the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality, and with the support of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), has awarded special support, "Gender Research 4 COVID 19", to projects and initiatives that enable the production and dissemination of knowledge on the gender impacts of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and the dissemination of contingency plans and measures adopted to contain and resolve it.

Each historical moment of crisis, whether environmental, health or economic and financial, and each regime of social gender relations, imposes specific demands on women and men. No crisis is gender-neutral and has different impacts during and after its occurrence. It is therefore necessary to know the demands faced by women and men due to the contextualized configurations of gender regimes and the demands and ways of reacting to the crisis. One of the fundamental dimensions to take into account is the division of the public and private spheres, of production and reproduction between women and men, and this is a crisis that puts care at the center of health, political, economic and financial concerns. Women are at the forefront of the response to the pandemic, as health professionals, social workers, cleaners, as scientists and researchers and as mobilizers; also as working mothers, they are particularly affected by the demands of reconciling care and support for children whose schools and nurseries have closed. Another level of impact of the pandemic crisis will be on the economy and the functioning of the labor market, with different effects expected on women in terms of employment, unemployment and working conditions, and exacerbated by the strong sexual segregation of professions and sectors of activity. Finally, times of crisis are generally associated with an increase in violence against women and domestic violence, with the increased risk of violence being closely linked to the situation of uncertainty and confinement in which families find themselves and difficulties in accessing formal and informal networks of help.

The studies produced within the framework of this support should contribute to the production of knowledge on these different impacts, the constraints placed by gender social relations on the individual, family, economic and health reaction to the pandemic, and its future effects, and to the presentation of response and intervention tools.

Results

FCT has published a brochure presenting the16 projects selected under the special support for R&D projects "Gender Research 4 COVID 19", which is available in digital format.

An online workshop was held on March 23 and 24, 2021. The sessions of the online workshop "Gender Research 4 COVID-19" are available to view here.