Why Should Feminists Care about Access to Medicines in the Context of Covid-19?

DAWNfeminist · Why Should Feminists Care about Access to Medicines in the Context of Covid-19?

With Sonia Corrêa and Gita Sen

Indian feminist economist, Gita Sen and Brazilian feminist author Sonia Corrêa discuss the obstacles to access to medicines in general, and in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Gita shares an evaluation of where we are today in this journey, and what can be learnt from previous experiences, such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1990s.
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Gita Sen is a Southern feminist activist and academic working on gender equality and women’s human rights. She holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford University and is adjunct professor of global health and population at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is Director and Distinguished Professor of the Ramalingaswami Centre at the Public Health Foundation of India. Her work has ranged widely, spanning poverty, population policies, human development, labour markets, and women’s health and it has helped to advance the global paradigm shift towards sexual and reproductive health and rights. Her books include: “Development, Crises and Alternative Visions: Third World Women’s Perspectives” and “Remaking Social Contracts: Feminists in a Fierce New World”. She is a founding member and current General Co-coordinator of DAWN.

Sonia Corrêa is a Brazilian feminist activist working on gender equality, health & sexuality. She is the founder of one of Brazil’s first feminist NGOs (SOS Corpo, 1981). Sonia is a research associate at the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for AIDS (ABIA), and co-chairs Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW). She is a prolific author with dozens of publications in several languages, such as “Population and Reproductive Rights: Feminist Perspectives from the South” and “Weighing Up Cairo: Evidence from Women in the South”. Sonia has lectured at various academic institutions, more recently at the Department of Gender Studies at LSE. Sonia was DAWN’s SRHR Research Coordinator and is a DAWN Board member. She is currently working on anti-gender politics globally.