CSWG invites you to join a round-table seminar on gendered inequalities under Covid-19, covering a range of topics including the uneven and unequal effects of Covid-19 on different groups of women, violence, household inequalities in lockdown, and the links between Covid-19 and other threats to the rights of LGBT people and BAME women. We will be hearing from Dr Ruth Pearce, Dr Kindy Sandhu, Dr Emma Beckett, and Dr Katherine Twamley (bios below), and inviting discussion on how to practice feminist solidarity as we remain in, and gradually emerge from, lockdown.

The event will take place via Zoom. The link and password will be circulated through the CSWG mailing list on the day, so do keep an eye out for this. We ask that you do not share this link beyond the CSWG mailing list for safety, please.

Speakers:

Dr Ruth Pearce is Research Coordinator for the Trans Learning Partnership, and a visiting researcher at the Universities of Surrey and Leeds. Her work explores issues of inequality, marginalisation, power and political struggle. She will explain how trans communities are disproportionately affected by Covid-19, and explore why governments in Europe and North America have chosen this moment to propose anti-trans legislation.

Dr Kindy Sandhu started her professional life as a software engineer working on real time telecommunications systems, rising to senior management. She has worked in the public and charity sectors too; including VAWG, education and housing. Kindy is a feminist activist, trade unionist and campaigner in the areas of anti-racism, and gender equality. She is a Labour and Co-operative councillor in Coventry. Kindy authored “Layers of Inequality”, which was an intersectional study of the impact of the spending cuts on BAME women. She was a member of the research team at Women's Budget Group, on “Intersecting Inequalities”, which undertook a cumulative impact assessment of the changes to taxes, benefits and public spending since 2010 on BAME women. She holds a PhD, in the subject of domestic violence using an intersectional approach. She is currently researching the impact of the hostile environment on victims of domestic violence and their children.

Dr Emma Beckett works in domestic abuse, training primary health care professionals in recognising and responding to domestic abuse. She will be talking about Covid-19 and domestic abuse, discussing the effect that lockdown has had upon victims and how we need to think about what happens post-lockdown.

Dr Katherine Twamley is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Science at University College London. Her research focuses on gender, love and intimacy, and family. Katherine has conducted research on the transition to parenthood, family policies (notably parental leave), understandings of love and marriage and how these intersect with understandings of ‘equality’. Her most recent project explores inter- and intra-family inequalities experienced and provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. This project is being undertaken with colleagues Dr Charlotte Faircloth and Dr Humera Iqbal (project site here). In this brief talk, she will discuss some of the rationale around a focus on gender and care during COVID-19, as well as the emerging findings.

If you face any access barriers and there are any adjustments we can make to support your full participation, please get in touch with Roxanne (r.n.douglas@warwick.ac.uk). Do also get in touch with Roxanne (r.n.douglas@warwick.ac.uk) if you have any questions about this event.