Transforming Work: Feminist perspectives on the COVID-19 crisis and recovery

Abstract

This paper examines social and economic disparities surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic within the context of neoliberal capitalism. The gendered, racialized, and other social inequities that were evident during this health crisis are linked to shifting work conditions and activities of labor and capital within the workplace and at the household level. The analysis draws from feminist economic geography to examine the social dimensions, spatial dynamics, and economic processes that are highlighted by changes in work and social relations during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion demonstrates how economic upheavals such as those that occurred alongside the pandemic are embedded in social reproduction, with particular emphasis on the precarity of labor and contested household dynamics. Furthermore, ongoing crises in neoliberal capitalism provide the conditions for social movements that challenge inequities and oppressive conditions for labor. The conclusion offers strategies for future directions of work that support inclusive and transformative ideals of feminist economic geography.

Keywords

• social reproduction
• feminist economic geography
• COVID-19 pandemic
• gender and work