Disaster patriarchy: how the pandemic has unleashed a war on women

As Covid-19 has swept the world there has been an explosion of violence against women, and a full-blown assault on their rights. It's time to fight back against a system that allows women to be sacrificed, erased and violated

Covid has unleashed the most severe setback to women's liberation in my lifetime. While watching this happen, I have started to think we are witnessing an outbreak of disaster patriarchy.

Naomi Klein was the first to identify disaster capitalism", when capitalists use a disaster to impose measures they couldn't possibly get away with in normal times, generating more profit for themselves. Disaster patriarchy is a parallel and complementary process, where men exploit a crisis to reassert control and dominance, and rapidly erase hard-earned women's rights. All over the world, patriarchy has taken full advantage of the virus to reclaim power - on the one hand, escalating the danger and violence to women, and on the other, stepping in as their supposed controller and protector.