Abstract:
Epidemics are not gender neutral. Studies of Ebola, Zika and HIV/AIDS recall that women in the Global South experience disease differently and disproportionately to men socially, economically and in some cases biologically. While there are many complex factors which contribute to this, this research focuses on the ways in which narratives in global health deal with epidemics, gender and women. This research asks in what ways have global health actors the WHO and CARE International, exacerbated gender inequity and what are the implications for marginalised women. It shows how global health actors exacerbate gender inequality through the kinds of stories they tell about disease and women which in turn, shapes how they are thought about and responded to. It argues that while these stories appear to be harmless, they conceal global health agendas which seek to instrumentalise women and their gendered roles in the prevention, management and containment of disease. This contributes to what can be understood as the feminisation of health (FOH) or the implicit and/or explicit gendered problematisation of disease. The theoretical framework draws on both Wald (2008) and Leach and Dry’s (2010) outbreak and narrative approaches to help identify the kinds of narratives that are used in global health. It also incorporates a gender perspective to help identify the ways in which women and their gendered roles have been dealt with by key global health agencies.
