Feminist Insights: Resilience and Resistance in Times of COVID-19

Shedding light on the myriad of experiences of women across the world, and their work to mobilize, resist, and foster solidarity in times of COVID-19, this dossier brings together a series of articles written by female activists, syndicalists, human rights defenders, and journalists based and active in countries of the Global South.

Health workers in New Delhi, demanding unpaid wages of the last 5 months by the government. Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) in Delhi are currently engaged in pandemic management work, such as conducting door-to-door surveys, especially in the containment zones, putting up posters outside Covid-19 patients' homes, keeping tabs on people in home isolation and supplying medicines at their doorsteps. **picture alliance / Pacific Press | Sondeep Shankar**

As the COVID-19 crisis reveals how different forms of discrimination intertwine and must be addressed collectively, the present moment is also an opportunity to radically rethink taken-for-granted policy approaches and introduce new, decentralized forms of organization. Women, and particularly women of colour, migrants, refugees, and those employed in informal settings are among the most heavily affected groups of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are also leading the way in finding sustainable solutions, resisting injustice, enhancing solidarity, and thus making their communities more resilient to this crisis and others to come. Feminist activists, grassroot movements, and unions all over the world are working tirelessly to bring about change despite movement restrictions, scarcity of funds, and uncertainties about the future.

This dossier was organized by Kristina Hinz and Izadora Zubek with support from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung’s Global Feminism Programme.

In an attempt to shed light on the myriad of experiences of women across the world and their work to mobilize, resist, and foster solidarity in times of COVID-19, we are launching a special dossier on the gendered impacts of the pandemic. This collection brings together a series of articles written by female activists, trade unionists, human rights defenders, and journalists based and active in countries of the “Global South”. Through these perspectives, this project aims to decentralize the debate on the crisis and highlight voices that are often underrepresented or marginalized, as current discussions are dominated by the viewpoints of a few countries, generally those with more economic and political power.

With this new dossier, we hope to share diverse feminist insights and learn from them, in order to imagine and start building the world after COVID-19—a world in which, as Brazilian researcher and writer Debora Diniz once said, “feminist values will become part of the common vocabulary”.