Some women can’t get vaccinated due to GBV

South Africa’s gender inequalities mean that women are bearing the brunt of the Covid pandemic in terms of infections and deaths – but they may also be hindering the vaccination of women, according to women’s activist groups.

They have called on the government to release statistics showing the gender breakdown of those who have received vaccinations so far.

A petition signed by 43 Women’s Voice and Leadership partners as part of the #Vaccine Gender Justice campaign has been sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Gender Links coordinator Nomthandazo Mankazana said: “Many of the women we work with have been, or still are, victims of gender-based violence, and believe it or not, some are not able to vaccinate due to this, or they do not have access to such information at all.

“Seventy percent of women in South Africa are front-line workers.“

Even though not everyone is a doctor of a nurse, some of us work on the ground.

“We work with the people we educate and creating awareness on the importance of them having to take the vaccine,” she said.

Mankazana also said the effects of Covid were an amplification of the existing fault lines of inequality, particularly in respect of gender, and they reflected a lot of problems that women faced.

“According to research, many women have lost their employment and many of them were breadwinners.
Imagine, domestic workers, or those who sell on the corner or in town,” Mankazana said.

However, in addition to suffering most of the job losses, according to Gender Links, the global vaccination roll-out has highlighted the “gross structural and systemic inequalities that exist within and between countries and the power that corporations have over governments”.

“Of the 25% of the population that has been fully vaccinated, the majority are in the European Union and North America with 54% and 44% of their populations having received one dose of the vaccine respectively,” the organisation said.

“Conversely just under 3% (2.8%) of Africa’s population has received one vaccination,” said the organisation.”