Faculty of Social  and Gender  Transformative Science:  The Gendered Impact of COVID-19: Exploring Risks, Opportunities and Challenges

The socio-economic effects of infectious disease outbreaks affect women more than men. As schools close and family members become ill, they bear the brunt of care responsibilities. Women are more vulnerable to domestic violence perpetrated by intimate partners and family members during pandemic lockdowns, and access to violence prevention and support services is limited. They are also disproportionately harmed due to limited access to sexual and reproductive health services. Because women are more likely than men to work fewer hours per week, they are more vulnerable to job losses during times of economic insecurity. Hard-won victories for women's rights are also jeopardised. Therefore, the research grants intend to foster the various ways in which critical and rigorous research can be used to investigate the gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic around our communities.

The closing date for submitting a research grant proposal is 9^th of July 2021.

OBJECTIVES:

• Identify solutions that are applicable to diverse groups of women
• Determine strategies and innovative approaches to reverse the pandemic's debilitating impact by mitigating long-standing inequalities and building a resilient community with women at the centre of recovery.

Original research articles, rigorous commentaries, first-hand accounts, and case studies are welcome for this call for research. Evidence-based, applied, theoretical, rhetorical, and critical cultural scholarship are all welcome. Submissions can be made in teams and each team can submit a maximum of 2 proposals. The running thematic area focuses on gender and Covid-19. However, proposals from an interdisciplinary approach shall be welcome on a wide range of perspectives that can be explored through:

• Covid-19 and mental health
• COVID-19's impact on progress and commitment to gender equality, women's empowerment, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• The gendered impact of school closures on women's careers
• The exacerbation of health disparities as a result of COVID-19
• Reduced access to sexual and reproductive health services as a result of COVID-19
• Increases in domestic violence and sexual assault at home as a result of state responses to COVID-19 such as lockdown and social distancing COVID-19's impact on girls' education.
• The impact of COVID-19 on women's mental health
• Challenges for female academics during COVID-19
• Gendered impact narratives in the media and media coverage
• Online learning in Universities and its gendered impacts
• The impact of Covid-19 on the sustainability of ‘men as providers’. How has Covid-19 redefined gender roles in society
• The intersection of Gender, Spirituality and Covid-19
• Entrepreneurship and Covid-19 Pandemic
• Gender and Health Care Access and Affordability in the Covid-19 Era.

Expected Outputs

As a final output of the conducted research, each grant recipient is required to produce and submit a high quality publishable manuscript (6000 to 8000 words) by 29^th of October 2021 for publication in TAJWAGID. All manuscripts shall undergo rigorous internal and external peer reviewing with authors expected to address all the comments given by the reviewers.

Application Procedure

Please attach and e-mail the following documents by 9^th of July 2021 to: institutional email address that shall be availed in due course.

1. Research proposal (2000-3000 words) –The research proposal should contain:

• Title of Project
• Introduction and Background of the study
• Statement of the problem
• Research objectives/questions or hypothesis
• Justification of the study
• Research Methodology

1. Research plan – Briefly outline when and where the different components of the research project shall be carried out.
2. Simplified budget – Please provide a budget outlining each cost associated with carrying out the research project and a rationale for each expenditure.

Timelines

1. Closing date for submitting a research grant proposal: 9^th of July 2021
2. Notification to applicants of the Selection Committee’s decision: on or before 16^th of July 2021
3. Submission of a complete paper: on or before 24^th of September 2021