Emancipatory Feminism in the Time of Covid-19: Transformative resistance and social reproduction
About this eBook
The Covid-19 pandemic threw into stark relief the multi-dimensional threats created by neoliberal capitalism. Government measures to alleviate the crisis were largely inadequate, leaving women – in particular working-class women – to carry the increased burden of care work while at the same time placing themselves in direct risk as frontline workers.
Emancipatory Feminism in the Time of Covid-19, the seventh volume in the Democratic Marxism series, explores how many subaltern women – working class, peasant and indigenous –challenge hegemonic neoliberal feminism through their resistance to ordinary capitalist practices and ecological extractivism. Contributors cover women’s responses in a wide range of contexts: from women leading the defence of Rojava – the Kurdish region of Syria, to approaches to anti-capitalist ecology and building food secure pathways in communities across Africa, to championing climate justice in mining affected communities and transforming gender divisions in mining labour practices in South Africa, to contesting macro-economic policies affecting the working conditions of nurses. Their practices demonstrate a feminist understanding of the current systemic crises of capitalism and patriarchal oppression. What is offered in this collection is a subaltern women’s grassroots resistance focused on advancing and enabling solidarity-based political projects, deepening democracy, building capacities and alliances to advance new feminist alternatives.
About the author
Vishwas Satgar (Author, Editor)
Vishwas Satgar is an associate professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is the editor of the Democratic Marxism series, and is the principal investigator for the Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene project and a democratic eco-socialist.
Ruth Ntlokotse (Author, Editor)
Ruth Ntlokotse is deputy president of the National Union of Metal of South Africa (NUMSA).
Hawzhin Azeez (Author)
Hawzhin Azeez is a Kurdish academic, activist and poet who spent close to four years in the Rojava region as a participant in the rebuilding and reconstruction of Kobane.
Asanda Benya (Author)
Asanda Benya is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town.
Christine Bischoff (Author)
Christine Bischoff works as a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Jane Cherry (Author)
Jane Cherry is the executive manager at the Cooperative and Policy Alternative Centre in Johannesburg. She is also an activist and organiser in the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign and the Climate Justice Charter Movement.
Jacklyn Cock (Author)
Jacklyn Cock is a professor emeritus in the Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and a research associate of the university’s Society, Work and Politics Institute.
Samantha Hargreaves (Author)
Samantha Hargreaves is the founder and director of the WoMin African Alliance, which works to challenge the destructive impacts of a patriarchal extractivist development model.
Inge Konik (Author)
Inge Konik is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, and an associate editor for the journal Environmental Humanities.
Jane Mbithi-Dikgol (Author)
Jane Mbithi-Dikgole is a lecturer and research supervisor at the South African College of Applied Psychology.
Courtney Morgan (Author)
Courtney Morgan is a campaigner for the African Climate Reality Project.
Sonia Phalatse (Author)
Sonia Phalatse is a feminist economist researching and writing at the intersection of climate and economic justice.
Busi Sibeko (Author)
Busi Sibeko is an economist and researcher whose work has focused on macroeconomic policy and who co-chaired the Budget Justice Coalition in South Africa.
Dineo Skosana (Author)
Dineo Skosana is a researcher at Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP). She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand.
