The Effects of COVID-19 on Women in South Africa: An Analysis using the Social Provisioning Framework

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in the South African government imposing a hard lockdown, bringing the majority of economic activities to a halt. For many countries, this pandemic has worsened existing gender inequalities, although in one of the world’s most unequal countries, these inequalities have become particularly visible. This descriptive study used the five methodological starting points of the social provisioning framework to dissect how this pandemic has affected South African women, a group which has historically been disadvantaged, but has become even more so during the pandemic. The starting points include considering caring and domestic labour, human well-being, human agency, validating ethical judgements, and adopting an intersectional analysis. This paper has drawn together information from various sources which have collected data throughout South Africa’s lockdown to paint a picture of the economic effects which the global pandemic has had on women. It has demonstrated how South Africa’s labour market, social security framework, and issues related to corruption – all of which had been challenges before the lockdown – have exacerbated gender inequality. Though many policy toolkits are available for devising policies aimed at promoting gender equality or at gender mainstreaming existing policies, the social provisioning framework complements the various toolkits by issuing a challenge to adopt a more critical way of thinking about women’s issues within society.