Emancipatory Feminism in the Time of Covid-19

Transformative resistance and social reproduction

Vishwas Satgar, Ruth Ntlokotse, Hawzhin Azeez, Asanda-Jonas Benya, Christine Bischoff, Jane Cherry, Jacklyn Cock, Samantha Hargreaves, Inge Konik, Jane Mbithi-Dikgol, Courtney Morgan, Sonia Phalatse, Busi Sibeko, Dineo Skosana, Asanda Benya, Vishwas Satgar, Ruth Ntlokotse, Vishwas Satgar, Ruth Ntlokotse

• Publisher: Wits University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781868149209
• eBook ISBN: 9781776148295
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Labour & Industrial Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Covid-19 pandemic showed that a patriarchal capitalist socio-economic system is unable to address the socio-ecological reproduction need of societies. This volume foregrounds the possibilities emancipatory feminism creates by resisting neo-liberalism through grassroots and indigenous activism.



The Covid-19 pandemic threw into stark relief the multi-dimensional threats created by neoliberal capitalism. Government measures to alleviate the crisis were largely inadequate, leaving women – in particular working-class women – to carry the increased burden of care work while at the same time placing themselves in direct risk as frontline workers.
Emancipatory Feminism in the Time of Covid-19, the seventh volume in the Democratic Marxism series, explores how many subaltern women – working class, peasant and indigenous –challenge hegemonic neoliberal feminism through their resistance to ordinary capitalist practices and ecological extractivism. Contributors cover women's responses in a wide range of contexts: from women leading the defence of Rojava – the Kurdish region of Syria, to approaches to anti-capitalist ecology and building food secure pathways in communities across Africa, to championing climate justice in mining affected communities and transforming gender divisions in mining labour practices in South Africa, to contesting macro-economic policies affecting the working conditions of nurses. Their practices demonstrate a feminist understanding of the current systemic crises of capitalism and patriarchal oppression. What is offered in this collection is a subaltern women's grassroots resistance focused on advancing and enabling solidarity-based political projects, deepening democracy, building capacities and alliances to advance new feminist alternatives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part One: Indigenous Emancipatory Feminism and Transformative Resistance
• Part Two: Ecology and Transformative Women’s Power in South Africa
• Part Three: Economic Transformation, Public Services and Transformative Women’s Power in South Africa
• Part Four: Where to for Emancipatory Feminism?
• Conclusion
• Contributors
• Index