Women and Covid-19: Gender Inequality and News Representation During the Pandemic

Abstract

<p>新冠肺炎大流行對全球造成重大影響，女性所受衝擊比男性更深。本研究蒐集臺灣三家報紙新聞媒體2020 年1 月至2021 年7 月間的疫情相關報導，採用批判論述分析方法，檢視新聞如何呈現女性及其所負擔的照顧責任，並與三家獨立網路媒體之報導對照。研究發現，疫情期間有關女性處境之報導數量微乎其微，報紙多將相關新聞刊登在次要版面，以照顧者、消費者、受害者等角度再現女性，忽略結構性問題，並暗示女性應解決自己的問題。</p> <p> </p><p>Recent studies have suggested that the impact of Covid-19 pandemic is gender-specific. Women are more susceptible than men to experience the effects of Covid-19. Since the global outbreak of Covid-19, the rates of unemployment mong women have increased. They have been required to spend more time attending to children and household chores and have experienced more domestic violence because of stay-home restrictions. This study employed critical discourse analysis to investigate reports on three Taiwanese newspapers published between January 2020 and July 2021. The analysis revealed that women were not represented sufficiently and that the issues of gender inequality were arginalized. The analysis also revealed that patriarchal ideology still dominates society; therefore, women’s contribution to care work is taken for granted. This study urges Taiwanese newspapers to account for women’s needs and promote gender equality.</p> <p> </p>