SEVEN SCALES FOR AN ECOFEMINIST READING OF THE CORONA PANDEMIC

7 Scales for an Ecofeminist Reading of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Marta Catalan Eraso

While gender-sensitive urban planning has created more inclusive spaces for women in cities around the world over the past few decades, the recent coronavirus crisis has prompted more complex and nuanced dimensions to the discipline. To reflect upon this impact, this article draws from ecofeminist theories. These theories1 , which depart from the critique of patriarchal science in combination with a concern for the environment, have illuminated the ways in which global structures have been biased, gendered, and unequal— allowing certain areas of the world to dominate others, men to dominate women, and the devastation of natural resources for the sake of uneven capital accumulation. Around the world, multiple initiatives have emerged to tackle the effects of the virus, prompting critical questions about the oppression of women and nature amidst this health crisis. This kind of oppression, which can be seen as a form of “slow violence”, is gradually destructive, out of sight, and often not registered as violence at all.2 Following, this text examines 7 planetary scales to illustrate the inherent gender and ecological inequalities currently existing in our world and to argue for a more environmentally sustainable approach that respects our biodiversity:

Marta Catalan is an architect and urban designer, currently working at The University of Hong Kong in the Division of Landscape Architecture. She completed her PhD in the same institution. Her current research examines urban segregation, unequal living conditions, and gentrification, with a particular interest in transnational architectural and urban forms and norms. Her research, teaching and practice has taken place in Spain, Japan and Hong Kong.

Marta Catalan Eraso

01_ Mies, M. and Shiva, V. (1993). Ecofeminism. Victoria: Spinifex Press.

02_Nixon, R. (2013). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

03_The poem was written by Mao Zedong in 1936 or 1945. It reads: “Rivers and mountains are beautiful and made heroes bow and compete to catch the girl — lovely earth.” English translation from Barnstone, W. (2008). Snow. In The Poems of Mao Zedong (pp.71-73). Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press.

04_In 2019 China ranked 85 out of 189 countries in the world in the United Nations Gender Inequality Index (GII). For more details see http://hdr.undp.org/ en/indicators/68606

05_For more on the gender pay gap see Meara, K., Pastore, F., & Webster, A. (2020). The gender pay gap in the USA: A matching study. Journal of Population Economics, 33(1), 271-305.

06_ Data from the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA). See UNPFA. (2020). Gender Equality and Addressing Gender-based Violence (GBV) and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Prevention, Protection and Response. Retrieved from: https://www.unfpa. org/resources/gender-equality-and-addressing-gender-based-violence-gbv-and-coronavirus-disease-covid-19

07_The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has alerted that due to virus-related disruptions in prevention programmes, 2 million girls could be cut around the world in the next decade. See UNPFA. (2020). Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Planning and Ending Gender-based Violen- Figure 2_Screenshots from CGTN (2020, February 13). Medical workers shave their heads in battle against coronavirus [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qccvoF7w3Vc 17

I. NATIONAL

Since the early weeks of the outbreak, women have been at the forefront of certain political agendas to assume administrative control of the fight against the virus on a national scale. In China, the state media released a video of female nurses willing to sacrifice their hair to endure long working hours. The video capitalized on the selflessness of the women in order to promote an image of egalitarian Chinese identity, to validate and bolster the rule of the central government during the health crisis. However, the video quickly prompted an online backlash in China, with commentators arguing that gender features should not define the discussion, instead calling for praise of the workers on the merits of their performance without an emphasis of their gender. Similarly, a campaign to inspire national solidarity, with animated cartoon mascots released by the Chinese state-managed Communist Youth League, was pulled within hours from its Twitter-like Weibo account. The female character, Jiangshan Jiao —“Lovely land” named after Mao’s poem— became a symbol of the everyday female struggles in China.3 Netizens began openly criticizing the mascot and prompting conversations about women’s rights to confront long standing issues of gender inequality in the nation, including sexual harassment, hiring discrimination and occupational segregation.4

II. SUBURBAN

Gender inequalities have also been

present in other online milieus. As part of the much discussed panic-buying practices around the globe, the Karen meme became a widely discussed social cliché that actually perpetuates sexist stereotypes of the North American mother in the suburbs. One viral Tweet reads: “I’m scared for people who actually need to go to the store & feed their fams but Susan and Karen stocked up for 30 years” with Susan and Karen as substitute names for suburban moms. The quip works in reference to the female role as main caretakers for their families. But it also raises a question about the long

ce, Female Genital Mutilation and Child Marriage. Retrieved from: https://www. unfpa.org/sites/ default/files/resource-pdf/COVID-19_impact_brief_for_UNFPA_24_April_2020_1. pdf

08_ Plan In04 ternational. (2020, May 18). Girls in Somalia Subjected to Door-to-Door FGM. Retrieved from: https://plan-international.org/ news/2020-05-18-girls-somalia-subjected-door-door-fgm 02_Nixon, R. (2013). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

09_For more on the demographics of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong see Enrich and Experian. (2019). The Value of Care: Key Contributions of Migrant Doemstic Workers to Economic Growth and Family Well-being in Asia.

10_Wright, R. (2020, March 30). Hong Kong asked domestic workers to stay in to stop the spread of coronavirus. But some got infected at home by their employers. CNN. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn. com/2020/03/28/asia/ domestic-helpers-coronavirus-hnk-intl/ index.html

11_Since the beginning of 2020, the Hong Kong Government launched 3 rounds of measures, totalling $287.5 billion to assist Hong Kong’s economy. More details on the exclusion of migrant domestic workers from these measures in Carvalho, R. (2020, April 9). Hong Kong Domestic Workers ‘Angry’ at Exclusion from Coronavirus Relief Measures. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from: https://www.scmp.com/ week-asia/politics/ article/3079281/ hong-kong-dometerm impact of the virus on women in the workforce. What will be the consequences for those families with no access to childcare who, during the lockdown, will have to choose which spouse’s career to prioritize, when the gender wage gap most often favors men?5

III. DOMESTIC

More harmful forms of gender inequality arose as the threat of the coronavirus expanded into almost every territory in the world. The menace of femicides at the domestic scale escalated in tandem with the virus.6 Countries across the globe, responding to the increased risks of gender-based violence under imposed lockdowns, have issued measures to mitigate instances of such violence. The efficacy of some of these measures has been debatable, as some state campaigns promoted gender inequality and perpetuated the concept of patriarchy. One example would be Malaysia’s women’s affairs ministry, which provided tips on how to avoid domestic conflicts by urging women to dress up, wear make-up, and stop nagging their husbands at home. Other efforts, such as the term “red mask” in Argentina, coined as a code

Figure 3_ Malaysia’s campaign urging women to dress up

and wear makeup during the coronavirus lockdown.18

word women may use to seek help in the pharmacies across the country, have brought to the forefront of the civic discussions the ongoing and widespread damaging gender norms and discriminatory practices in the domestic realm. Unfortunately, in other parts of the world governments have been less proactive, and lockdowns have led to a critical increase in female genital mutilation (FGM) in the domestic realm.7 For instance in Somalia, where 98% of girls have been subjected to FGM, the highest proportion of any country, school closures and the economic downturn have contributed to a massive spike in FGM cases in the recent months.8 To tackle the various forms of gender violence during the virus outbreak, some of these and other feminist initiatives have been tagged under the hashtag #TheOtherPandemic.

IV. PUBLIC

Interestingly, as the total number of deaths from the Coronavirus rose, Hong Kong was presented in world media as a success story in controlling the out-

Figure 4_ Foreign domestic workers’ gathering on a Sunday in Central, Hong Kong, 2020. Photo taken by the author.

break. Drawing from the 2003 SARS crisis, the government measures were prompt and largely unquestioned, allowing for a minimal infection rate. However, what has been less discussed about Hong Kong’s “role model” coronavirus response has been the silent oppression of the largely female group of migrant domestic workers in the public spaces of the city. In charge of childminding and elderly care, domestic workers represent 10% of the current workforce in Hong Kong.9 They have historically been regarded as lower class citizens who, unlike other workers in the city, must reside with their employers and, working around the clock, often only have one day off per week, typically Sunday. During the outbreak, the migrant domestic workers saw the wider public critici-

Figure 5_ Health Advice for Inbound Travellers during Compulsory Quarantine Period in English and Bahasa to inform Indonesian domestic workers, Hong Kong Center for Health Protection, 2020.

stic-workers-angry-exclusion-coronavirus-relief

12_ Wenham, C., Smith, J., Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: The Gendered Impacts of the Outbreak. The Lancet, 395(10227), 846-848.

13_ The measure ‘Peak and Gender’ [Pico y Género], was announced by the Bogota mayor Claudia López Hernández at the end of April 2020. See Febres, D. (2020, April 26). Días en los que podrán salir mujeres y hombres durante la Cuarentena por la Vida [Days in which men and women will be able to go out during the Quarantine for Life]. Bogota. Retrieved from: https://bogota.gov. co/mi-ciudad/salud/ coronavirus/pico-ygenero-en-bogota-enmayo-2020

14_ Ng, W. and Acker, A. (2018). Understanding Urban Travel Behaviour by Gender for Efficient and Equitable Transport Policies. International Transport Forum.

15_English translation by author. Mainguy, S. (19 Mars 2020). Nous ne sommes pas en guerre, et n’avons pas à l’être… L’ambition ferme d’un service à la vie suffit. La Relève et La Peste. Retrieved from https:// lareleveetlapeste. fr/tribune-nous-nesommes-pas-en-guerre-et-navons-pas-aletre/

16_ Screenshots from CGTN (2020, February 13). Medical workers shave their heads in battle against coronavirus [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=qccvoF7w3Vc

17_ Communist Youth League (2020, February 17). Jiangshan Jiao and Hongqi Man [Weibo].

18_ Malaysia Ministry of Development of Women, Families and Communities, 2020. ze their Sunday outings, the sole weekly moment they have to take care of their personal affairs (some of them of critical importance, such as sending remittances to struggling relatives back home). Moreover, these workers were falsely accused of disproportionately contributing to the spread of the virus. Closer study, however, revealed that most infected foreign domestic workers had actually been exposed to the virus by their employers, who had become infected while traveled abroad, and not by their fellow migrant workers as it had been publicly implied.10 Furthermore, despite many domestic workers being terminated as a result of the economic impact of the virus, and unable to return to their countries due to lockdown measures, the government has also excluded them from the coronavirus relief measures.11 Despite these oppressive conditions though, the community of domestic workers has proved to be very resilient, and, during the virus outbreak, they have organized a number of self-care and mutual support initiatives among themselves, to inform, protect, and provide assistance for those in need.

V. URBAN

At the same time, the gendered impacts of various outbreaks have historically not been accounted for in urban policies and public health measures around the world and the Coronavirus response has been no exception.12 The outbreak has contributed to the emergence of uncanny gendered solutions in the urban milieu to cope with the de-escalation of the confinement. In Bogota, the authorities rolled out a measure to ease the lockdown based on an open gender divide. Female non-essential workers are allowed to attend their jobs on even

numbered days and males on odd numbered days.13 This rule, which apparently aims to simply divide the population into two equal halves, has actually further perpetuated gender and health inequities. The creation of a gender-segregated urban landscape leaves women more vulnerable, as studies have shown women are more likely to use public transport than private cars, thus they are more exposed to contagion.14 To recognize

Figure 6_ ‘Peak and Gender’ advertisement, Alcaldia Municipal de Agua de Dios, Colombia, 2020.

that disease outbreaks affect women and men differently is a critical stepping stone for developing gender-equitable response policies for our future cities.

VI. and VII. MICRO AND GLOBAL

To conclude, I would like to bring our attention to both the smallest and largest scales to critique the domination of people and resources in relation to the current coronavirus crisis. While the health emergency has brought many aspects of our world to a halt, certain voices have stressed the importance of reflecting upon the microscopic scale. Among them has been Dr. Sophie Mainguy, an E.R. physician who made a public appeal for an alternative understanding of difference and equality, in contrast to the capitalist-patriarchal perspective of hierarchy and uniformity: “We are not at war nor do we have to be [...] There is no enemy. There is another living organism in full migratory flow and we must stop so that our respective currents do not clash too much [...] Life forms that do not serve our interests [...] are not our enemies. This is yet another opportunity to realize that humans are not the only force on this planet and that they must sometimes make room for others [...] It is not a war, it is an education, that of humility, interrelation and solidarity”.15 And paradoxically, as we keep worrying about the impact that the outbreak will have on the economy, and watching videos of herds of animals venturing into (finally!) human-free cities, less circulated news on the indigenous populations of the Amazon region who have been infected with coronavirus prompt further discussions about the vulnerability of the guardians of one of the largest bio reserves in the world and the devastating effect at a global scale that this particular local outbreak might have on the ecosystems of our (only) planet.