Body Politics in the COVID-19 Era from a Feminist Lens

The premises of the feminist economist tradition from the Global South center their analysis in the wellbeing of people and the planet, under the human rights framework, gender equality and environmental integrity, as cross-cutting principles. The pandemic brought to the surface what the feminist movement has been saying all along, namely that the wellbeing of persons, and the planet they live in, depends on a complex web of elements beyond a limited notion of bodily health. The current capitalistic system has always kindled a tension between life and profits, a game that has undermined human rights of all persons by prioritizing the circulation of merchandises, goods and capitals. That struggle is more acutely felt now with the confinement measures imposed all around the world, and the ensuing impossibility for millions of people in precarious circumstances of respecting the lockdown measures. Women are even more carrying the burden of subsidizing entire economies. The feminist movement is now looking at solutions of solidarity at the crossroad between and within social movements, public policy, local and community resistance, while refusing to go back to a world where women may have to subsidize even more entire economies under recession. © 2020, Society for International Development.