Christian women bearing the brunt of burden during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe: A social gender justice perspective

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 brought untold suffering to Christian women as they are the custodians of the families. A considerable number of people have succumbed to the COVID-19 pandemic globally. The hardest hit were women in hospitals, villages and families, owing to the fact that they looked after the sick. During lockdowns, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the already existing gender disparities, with far-reaching implications to Christian women. The closure of offices and educational institutions, the emerging norm of working from home and online education, the lack of services of domestic workers and the need to perform unpaid chores in the household has increased. In this context, the focus of this study is to interrogate how the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic posed as an agonizing burden to the Zimbabwean Christian women and the girl child from a social gender justice perspective. The paper argues that Christian women were on the receiving end during the peak of the pandemic, owing to a plethora of factors, notably: there were no resources in clinics; there was no protection when looking after patients; thus, resulting in the higher risk of contracting coronavirus disease. The study is informed by insights from a social gender justice perspective to examine how Christian women were burdened during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe. It could be concluded that Christian women suffered most during the coronavirus disease in Zimbabwe when they looked after the sick; ultimately resorting to the indigenous herbal medicines as a cure to COVID-19 when there was no conventional medicine. Utilizing the lens of the social gender justice framework, this study examines how the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic posed an unbearable burden, particularly to the Christian women and the girl child in Zimbabwe from. This article contributes to the ongoing academic discussions emphasizing the need for Christian women to be empowered in order to better equipped to fight for their rights globally.