Ebola, gender and conspicuously invisible women in global health governance

Abstract

The international response to Ebola brings into stark contention the conspicuous invisibility of women and gender in global health governance. Developing feminist research on gender blindness, care and male bias, this article uses Ebola as a case to explore how global health rests on the conspicuous free labour of women in formal and informal care roles, yet renders women invisible in policy and practice. The article does so by demonstrating the conspicuous invisibility of women and gender in narratives on Ebola, emergency and long-term strategies to contain the disease, and in the health system strengthening plans of the World Health Organization and World Bank.

Keywords:

• Ebola
• global health governance
• gender
• women

Acknowledgements

Thanks and acknowledgment to James Dunkerley for helping me to articulate ‘conspicuously invisible’. Thanks to the reviewers, to Simon Rushton for his editorial comments, and to the audience at the ‘Ebola’ panels at the 2015 BISA Annual Conference for their questions and suggestions on an earlier draft of the paper.

Notes

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2. Rai et al., Depletion and Social Reproduction.

3. Rai and Waylen, “Feminist Political Economy.”

4. Razavi and Staab, “Introduction”; and Elson, “Economic Crises.”

5. See, for example, Young et al., Questioning Financial Governance.

6. Razavi, “Addressing/Reforming Care.”

7. Razavi and Staab, “Introduction.”

8. Elson, “Male Bias in the Development Process,” 3.

9. Elson, “Male Bias in the Development Process.”

10. Rai and Waylen, “Feminist Political Economy.”

11. Yeates, “Women’s Migration.”

12. See, for example, Doyal, What Makes Women Sick.

13. Baylies and Bujra, AIDS, Sexuality and Gender; and Doyal et al., AIDS.

14. Anderson, Gender, HIV and Risk.

15. Seckinelgin, International Security.

16. Griffin, Gendering the World Bank.

17. Razavi and Staab, “Introduction”; Harman, “The Dual Feminisation”; and Anderson, “Infectious Women.”

18. WHO, Women and Health.

19. Harman, “Women and the MDGs.”

20. Bates et al., “Gender and Health Inequities”; Springer et al., “Introduction”; and Springer et al., “Beyond a Catalogue of Differences.”

21. WHO, “Six Months after the Ebola Outbreak was Declared.”

22. Gostin et al., “The President’s National Security Agenda,” 27–28.

23. Drazen et al., “Editorial”; “Ebola, Quarantine and the Law,” 5–6; and “Editorial: Rationality and Co-ordination,” 1163.

24. Alcabes, “Race and Panic”; Dionne and Seay, “Perceptions about Ebola in America,” 6–7; and Hankivsky, “Intersectionality and Ebola,” 14–15.

25. Friedrich, “Potential Therapies,” 1503; Trad et al., “Ebola in West Africa,” 779; Kass, “Ebola, Ethics and Public Health,” 744–745; and Gupta, ‘Rethinking the Development of Ebola Treatments,” e563–564.

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28. Piot, “Editorial”; and Piot et al., “Ebola in West Africa.”

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30. Kieny and Doulo, “Beyond Health Systems.”

31. Youde, “The World Health Organisation”; and Busby and Grepin, “What accounts for the World Health Organization’s Failure?,’ 12–13.

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33. Harman, Is Time up for WHO?

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35. Farmer, “The Largest ever Epidemic”; and Martin-Moreno, “The International Ebola Response.”

36. Menendez et al., “Ebola Crisis,” e130.

37. Diggins and Mills, The Pathology of Inequality.

38. WHO, “Ebola Response Roadmap,” 4.

39. WHO, “Ebola Response Roadmap.”

40. Ibid., 10.

41. WHO, “WHO Situation Reports.”

42. WHO, One Year into Ebola Epidemic, 50.

43. World Bank, “Ebola Response Factsheet.”

44. World Bank, ‘Press Release”; World Bank, “Ebola”; and World Bank, “Ebola Hampering Household Economies.”

45. World Bank, “Ebola Hampering Household Economies”; and World Bank, “The Socioeconomic Impacts of Ebola.”

46. World Bank, “The Socio-economic Impacts of Ebola.”

47. Ibid., 13.

48. World Bank, The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic.

49. Fraser-Moleketi, “Ebola.”

50. UN Women Inter-Agency Standing Committee, “Humanitarian Crisis in West Africa,” 2.

51. Richards and Yei-Mokuwa, “Burial Practices.”

52. WHO, “WHO Situation Reports.”

53. WHO, “Ebola Response Roadmap.”

54. WHO, “Key Components.”

55. Gostin, “Ebola”; Gostin and Friedman, “Ebola”; and “Editorial: Ebola - What Lessons?”

56. WHO, Everybody’s Business.

57. Ibid., 8, 17, 38.

58. WHO, International Health Regulations.

59. World Bank, Healthy Development.

60. Ibid., 88.

61. Chant, “Rethinking the ‘Feminisation of Poverty’.”

62. Kamradt-Scott et al., “Saving Lives,” 16.