Call for Papers – Special Issue on Pandemics, Women and the Global South

Guest Editors

• Amartya Sen, Harvard University, USA
• Alberto Quadrio-Curzio, Editor in chief of Economia Politica, Accademia Lincei, Italy
• Bina Agarwal, Co-editor of Economia Politica, The University of Manchester, UK
• Jeniffer Thomson, University of Capetown, South Africa and OWSD
• Floriana Cerniglia, Co-editor of Economia Politica, Catholic University, Italy
• Ragupathy Venkatachalam, Associate Editor of Economia Politica, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
• Jing Meng,  Associate Editor of Economia Politica, University College London, UK

Epidemics and pandemics have a devastating effect on all sections of society, as evidenced most recently in the recent COVID-19 crisis. These events invariably have a disproportionate effect on some sections of the population. Emerging evidence indicates that while women often tend to be less vulnerable to the disease in terms of morbidity and mortality (barring comorbidities), they bear a disproportionately larger brunt of the economic and social disruptions that accompany these public health disasters. This is especially so for women in poor households in the Global South, and race and ethnicity can create special vulnerabilities, as noted under Covid-19.  Existing gender and class inequalities also tend to get exacerbated all round.

So far, the gendered impact of pandemics has been relatively under researched. There are at least five interrelated areas that merit further investigation: Poverty and livelihood vulnerability, food security, formal and informal employment, education, health care access. Some of these effects may be felt immediately, others in the long term as economies face recession, rising unemployment, and slow recoveries. How do these effects play out across gender, class and race intersectionalities? What is the emerging data and evidence?  What is the role of communities, the state and civil society in this regard, and what can be done to design public policy to tackle such challenges in the future.

Equally, in many regions, women — from grassroot workers to top political leaders — are reported to have played very important roles in crisis management, and in formulating and implementing creative solutions to address these issues. What, in particular, do women bring to bear on managing the crisis?

This special issue will focus both on the impact of pandemics (past and current) on women and their responses to it, especially in the developing world.  We encourage contributions of an interdisciplinary nature. Research contributions by women scholars from developing countries are particularly welcome.

The Special issue will comprise of 12-15 original papers. All papers will undergo the standard peer-review process. Submissions should be sent through the online system at the link https://www.editorialmanager.com/epol/default.aspx, selecting “Special Issue: “Pandemics, Women and the Global South” from the Menu.

Submitted manuscripts should be up to 10,000-12,000 words in length, including all references, notes and appendices.

The final structure of the special issue will be decided by the guest editors.

The deadline for papers submissions is January 15, 2021

Finalization of the Special Issue June 2021