Urgency and relevance of feminist social work to curb domestic violence amid COVID-19

Abstract

As the world is witnessing unprecedented circumstances and humans are making every possible effort to save their lives and livelihoods from the Coronavirus, unfortunately, there is a segment of the populace that is even more vulnerable. Women are compelled to stay indoors during quarantine, which makes them more exposed to domestic violence from their intimate partners. In these times of emergency, feminist social work is needed more than ever. Therefore, this article highlights the issue of domestic violence women are facing during pandemics around the globe and signifies the relevance of feminist social workers in domestic violence amid COVID-19.

Keywords

COVID-19 domestic violence feminist social work intimate partners quarantine women

Introduction

Pandemics extend the existing inequalities, particularly gender, in societies. It is worth mentioning that the increase in the incidence of violence during COVID-19 is not only an end-product of frustration out of physical incarceration, but several other factors contribute to this ferocity, as the pandemic brought with it the uncertain future with the severe global slowdown, job losses, economic distress, mental health issues, barred businesses and the future of starvation and poverty for billions of people for an indefinite time. From the evidence of the Ebola and Zika epidemics, it is known that both high- and low-income countries experience a rise in the incidence of domestic violence. During lockdowns, people are more exposed to stress, alcohol consumption, and financial constraints that trigger violence in the home, especially against women (The Atlantic, 2020).

It has been concluded by researchers that past pandemic crises such as Ebola, SARS swine flu, and bird flu had led to profound and long-lasting effects on gender equality (Wenham et al., 2020a).

As the world is fighting a war against coronavirus, reports around the world are depicting that lockdown, quarantines and restrictions make it more likely that cases of domestic violence will spike, with several negative repercussions on women’s mental, sexual and reproductive well-being, which in turn will result in their marginal contribution to the recovery and improvisational efforts for economies and humanity (McLaren et al., 2020). Furthermore, imposing strict lockdowns and quarantining an entire population in itself constitutes a severe challenge to all the stakeholders, particularly feminist social workers (Boncori, 2020).

The enforcing agencies and institutions around the world are expected to help every victim of domestic violence, but the current crisis of COVID-19 is restraining them as they are over-burdened by an increase in their duties and responsibilities (Wu and McGoogan, 2020). In China, police personnel are overloaded with work during the crisis of COVID-19, and they are not available and reachable to help victims of domestic violence (The New York Times, 2020). In Europe, countries were unprepared to make adequate provisions for victims of domestic violence amid COVID-19; as the cases of domestic violence spiked, governments were bound to deal with such a situation by extemporizing solutions (The New York Times, 2020). In Italy, when the incidence of domestic violence began to rise, oppressed women had no place to go as shelter houses were reluctant to take them due to the spread of coronavirus infection (The New York Times, 2020). In Britain, the government was not equipped to handle the increasing cases of domestic violence against women. They responded by publishing a list of hotline numbers and applications, but among them, only one was tailored specially to combat the domestic violence during the COVID-19 crisis. In the end, lockdowns will be lifted but as the quarantine period is extending, the jeopardy for troubled women is likely to be intensified. According to the United Nations agency for sexual and reproductive health (UNFPA), if confinements and lockdowns extend to another 6 months, the world will witness more than 31 million cases of domestic violence (The Hindu, 2020). Studies have revealed that abusers are more likely to kill the victims of domestic violence due to personal crises like job losses and financial distress as COVID-19 is devastating the nation’s economy, and the crisis and incidence of domestic violence will become even more apparent. In Palestine, the murder of a woman by her intimate partner highlighted the heightening risk to women’s lives in confinement during COVID-19 (We Effect, 2020).

However, Perez (2019) highlighted the lack of research to explore the gendered impact of the pandemic. Over 29 million papers were published at the time of the Zika and Ebola outbreaks whereas only 1 percent of these papers stressed the gender perspective in a pandemic. Wenham et al. (2020b) revealed that no study had been conducted on gender analysis of the coronavirus. There has been a plethora of studies and data about women’s experiences, of which only a small portion is concerned with occurrences of domestic abuse. Moreover, COVID-19 has once again highlighted the extent of the incompetency and ignorance of societies around the world to take the violence against women seriously. Feminist social workers functioning in gender-based violence are not recognized as important workers and permitted to continue working or given dispensation. Around the world, feminist social workers provide essential and life-saving services, but they are not recognized as essential personnel and are not provided protection and security. In response, many services provided by a feminist social worker have been reduced to a minimum that impedes the gender-based violence/violence against women segment (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2020).

Feminism gives a critical perspective through which to comprehend, and then seek to alleviate, the apprehensions and challenges, particularly of women and others they care about. Feminist theories provide frameworks for studying gendered roles and identities, which is especially crucial for understanding and resolving the issues experienced by women and groups that defy conventional expectations (Hyde, 2013). These thoughts, processes, and outcomes serve as the foundation for feminist social work and have an impact on other practice paradigms. The practice of feminist social work is a comprehensive framework that eventually advocates for the healing of all levels of society. It accepts and promotes fundamental principles of social transformation within social work, most notably empowerment and oppression abolition which includes intimate partner violence (Dominelli, 2019; Finn et al., 2013; Kemp and Brandwein, 2010; White, 2006).

Given the significance of feminist social workers to curb domestic violence in the prevailing COVID-19 crisis, a more comprehensive literature review is required to analyze the state of the field. Thus, a wide-ranging literature review has been conducted to demonstrate the relevance of feminist social work to curb domestic violence amid COVID-19. The review retrieves and summarizes the available data, reports, and literature on the specific topic of investigation.

To achieve our objective the researchers propose three research questions that will support the study:

• What are the distinct characteristics of feminist social work?

• What are the issues of domestic violence against women around the globe amid COVID-19?

• What is the relevance of feminist social work to curb domestic violence amid COVID-19?

Drawing from high-quality refereed journals and reports from credible publications, which includes a substantial pool of published work, to retrieve the relevant academic literature on the feminist social worker and gender inequality ‘Academic Search Premier’, ‘Science Direct’, ‘Web of Knowledge’ and ‘Scopus’ database were used. The publications were analyzed based on their specific focus on feminist social work, violence against women amid COVID-19 and relevance of feminist social work to curb domestic violence during the pandemic. Besides focusing on the professional literature (journals and reports), the study also has data from newspaper articles. The reason for the inclusion of the newspaper articles is that they provide up-to-date and factual information on how distinctly feminist social workers have contributed to curbing domestic violence in an unprecedented catastrophe like COVID-19, and highlighted their relevance. Moreover, scarce professional literature was available on the area of concern and therefore the information from newspaper articles supplemented the current study.

Feminist social work, domestic violence, and COVID-19 were the keywords used for the search. The focus was on retrieving evidence and literature in English. The evidence and literature from peer-reviewed, newspaper articles and credible reports were included in the present study, and therefore more cited publications on Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science were included. Exploration of all these reports/articles drew a clearer picture of the distinct nature of feminist social work, issues of domestic violence, and the relevance of feminist social focus to curb domestic violence against women amid COVID-19 and therefore determines the objectives of the study.

This article is structured into five sections: the first electorate on the emergence of feminist social work. The second section briefly describes the distinct nature of feminist social work in terms of its perspectives and ideologies. The third section presents the nature of domestic violence and its negative effects on women. The fourth segment highlights the prevailing issue of cases of domestic violence around the world amid COVID-19; and finally, the fifth section signifies the important role of feminist social workers in times of global pandemic to curb domestic violence.

Feminist social work

The emergence of feminist social work began in the early 1970s when it started to be constituted as a specialized concept within the field (Kemp and Brandwein, 2010). Feminist social work commenced operationalizing its impressions and thoughts by challenging the therapeutic discourse medical mental health outlines (Land, 1995), questioning the masculine dominance and gender role division in families, and by securitizing and discussing gender power relations in teamwork (Garvin and Reed, 1995). Although the nature of the practices and deliberations of feminist social work is multidimensional, notably, there are certain common characteristics: as it focuses on an exploration of the social and structural effects of women’s personal distress, critical examination of power relations in therapeutic relationships, emphasis on the associations of women, stressing on employment of empowering intervention methods for women and a shift from authoritarian involvement to partnership, and in-depth analysis and investigation in the concept of ‘women’ as comprehensive and diverse through the spectrum of gender intersection with further social classifications at the macro and micro levels (Dominelli, 2002; Wahab et al., 2014). Therefore feminist social work follows a feminist orientation by deriving its foundational concepts from fundamentalist, liberal, socialist and, postmodernist feminist models (Pandya, 2014)

Distinct nature of feminist social work

A study conducted by Eyal-Lubling and Krumer-Neva (2016) was intended to investigate the practices and principles followed by feminist social workers in their work behaviors. The respondents of the study were feminist social workers who described their work by comparing it with conventional social work, representing the significant difference of feminist social work, and therefore describing it as counter-practice. Based on the explanations of respondents about the uniqueness of feminist social work practices, the study revealed four critical principles: the use of gender exploration, examination of the welfare services as structures of repression, functioning through power relations and the use of feminist language.

The use of gender analysis is one of the fundamental principles of feminist behavior and ideology (Dominelli, 2002), which is concerned with analyzing the behavior and experiences of an individual from the spectrum of gender and analysing it in the context of the power relations prevalent in the society. The principle of gender analysis allows feminist social workers to comprehend the problematical behavior of individuals not as a manifestation of personal illness but as an expression of the prevailing social environment that makes women oppressed. The examination of power relations among the societal groups and interactive relationships is an essential element of feminist social work (Mahalik et al., 2000). Feminist social workers consider power relations to be profound in shaping the simplest interaction that comprises helping relationships. In this respect, feminist social workers follow the principles of increasing autonomy and self-determination of women in decisions related to them. A feminist worker follows the process of self-revelation of personal aspects for advancing the healing progression, which includes professional experiences; personal and political values; and the socioeconomic context. In addition, feminist social workers work on the concept of cooperation, decentralization, joint decision making, and equivalent relationship (Eyal-Lubling and Krumer-Nevo, 2016).

Another principle followed by feminist social work is the examination of social welfare services as the structure of oppression (Piven and Cloward, 1975). Ineffective administration and acceptance measures and mechanisms of categorization are the frequent expressions of this oppression (Fook, 1993). This is deliberated by feminists by eliminating the organizational complications, marginalizing the bureaucratic blockades in the interactive relations, and by working in the prevalent real-life context.

Finally, the use of feminist language describes the dialectal practices that outline the beliefs, actions, and professional characters of feminist social workers (Healy, 2014). In this regard, the feminist’s social work adopts the tools of translation and mediation for professional discourses, and facilitation of professional collaborations, progressions, and working. The expression of two languages by feminist social workers are perceived to be eccentric and unprofessional, so they always work under the radar. However, the practice of translation and moderation is intended to bridge the difference between social workers and other professionals for becoming more significant within the field (Eyal-Lubling and Krumer-Neva, 2016).

Violence against women

Violence against women is also referred to as intimate partner violence and gender/sexual-based violence is considered a global issue (Hequembourg et al., 2008). Around the globe, one in three women faces violence in their lifespans. As per statistics, around 35 percent of women have faced physical or sexual violence from their intimate partner or non-mate sexual violence. Moreover, 38 percent of the killings of women around the world have been committed by an intimate partner (The World Bank, 2019). There are several correlated and overlapping forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, sexual violence (human trafficking, physical violence, and psychological violence), pestering, forced marriages, honor killings, female genital mutilation and, recently women facing violence over the Internet or social media platforms; in most of the cases, violence is perpetrated by men (Bonewitt and De Santis, 2016). Domestic violence is the most prominent form of violence against women (Montoya and Rolandsen Agustín, 2013). It has been seen it many incidences of violence against women that the abuser does not resort to physical violence but adopts other tools for abuse like distancing the victim from work, friends, and family; continuous surveillance; controlling the behavior by making rules and guidelines for appropriate behavior, and restricting access to basic necessities like food, sanitation and hygiene, and clothing (The New York Times, 2020).

Most domestic violence is carried out by the husband or intimate sexual partner (García-Moreno et al., 2005). Furthermore, domestic violence refers to all acts of violence that are physical, sexual, psychological, and economic against women within the family or domestic unit or by current or former partners, whether or not they share the residence with the sufferer. Domestic violence could be in the form of physical violence (including sexual ferocity), mostly accompanied by abusive behavior as well as economic restrictions (Cleaver and Unell, 2011). Threats, terrorizing, beating, and discriminating by an intimate partner are not only subject to criminal justice and lead to health crises but also have tremendous implications for the welfare of children (Muller et al., 2009). The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women pronounced that the reason for the increasing incidence of violence against women is the expression of traditionally accepted inequality and uneven distribution of power relations between the genders in the world. The contribution of women to the socio-economic framework is tremendous and the violence against them compels them to settle into a subordinate position against their counterpart (Assembly, 1993).

Violence against women has serious and tenacious repercussions on the physical and mental health of millions of women around the world (Lafrance, 2009). Violence against women are prevalent in almost all socioeconomic and socio-cultural groups, irrespective of caste, ethnicity, class and religion (Salunke and Ambedkar, 2012). Besides the above-said repercussions of violence against women, it has a severe impact on women’s emotional well-being due to sexual, physical and psychosomatic sufferings. Women who experience physical and sexual violence show a high rate of depression, abortions, and acquiring HIV (García-Moreno et al., 2013). In addition, violence against women is not only distressing to sufferers and their relatives but also negatively affects the economic and social background of the countries, as it is estimated to cost approximately 3.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is more than the expenditure of the administration on educational settings and development. The inefficiency in addressing the issue of increasing violence against women also has a substantial bearing on the future (World Health Organization, 2001). Several studies have revealed that children who have been raised in an environment of violence and fear are more likely to become victims or perpetrators of violence in the future (The World Bank, 2019).

Issues of domestic violence against women around the globe amid COVID-19

As soon as states declared lockdowns to reduce the spread of coronavirus and measures for its containment, countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Spain, and the United States experienced a huge surge in the number of complaints and reports by women of domestic violence (UN WOMEN, 2020) along with their children being abused, with most of them encountering physical violence at home (Quartz India, 2020). There was a more than 30 percent increase in requests for help from women in Singapore and around 40 percent of such reports were for help in the situations of extreme violence. In Hubie province of China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, reports of domestic violence were tripled in number Brazil has also seen an upswell in cases of domestic violence, at around 40 to 50 percent, the causes of which are attributed to coronavirus quarantine (The Guardian, 2020a). The experiences of previous epidemics like Ebola and Zika validate that there is an increase in the incidence of domestic violence against women and deprivation of mental, sexual and reproductive health services to women (State of the Planet, 2020). The more serious repercussions have been witnessed in Uganda, where five women died due to domestic violence during lockdowns (Sserukera, 2020).

A similar scenario is perceived worldwide. In Italy, women resorted to sending emails and text messages as authorities observed a 270 percent surge in consultations and 70 percent decline in the number of calls to helplines, because of the fear of being heard and caught by abusive partners amid coronavirus in times when they have no choice but to stay indoors (Reuters, 2020). In The United Kingdom, the leader of the Women’s Equality Party urged the authorities to grant special powers to the police to take victims of domestic violence out of their homes during lockdowns and to revoke any court fees in connection with women’s protection (Women’s Equality Party, 2020). A representative from Germany revealed that thousands of women were living in the shadow of fear with their abusers and urged the government to provide safe shelters for abused women during such times of emergency by transforming hotels and guesthouses and allowing the women to leave homes where they are vulnerable to violence (OECD, 2020). The administration in Greece emphasized helping women facing domestic violence by directing the local authorities to visit houses where the mistreatment of women and children was suspected (Bar and Bench, 2020). France claimed an increase of 700 percent in the number of calls by women undergoing domestic violence on a particular day (The Guardian, 2020b). In Turkey, the situation was even more serious, when around 12 women were killed during the coronavirus lockdown (Al and Monitor, 2020). Also, a 20 percent increase is seen in the numbers of domestic violence reports in New Zealand (nzherald.co.nz., 2020). Meanwhile, India claimed an escalation in the number of cases of violence against women during the coronavirus lockdown at around 983 complaints reported to the national commission of women (The Week, 2020).

The upward pattern in the rate of domestic violence against women and children was an anticipated reaction to the worldwide lockdowns due to COVID-19 (Medical News Today, 2020). Such consequences have also been observed in other emergencies, including wars, economic downfalls, or during previous epidemic outbreaks. Even before the occurrence of coronavirus, the prevalence of violence against women was considered one of the major concerns of the Human Rights Watchdog. Around the world, in the past year, about 243 million women aged between 15 and 49 years have been exposed to sexual and physical violence from their partners (UN WOMEN, 2020).

Relevance of feminist social work to curtail domestic violence amid COVID-19

The pandemic has exposed the dominance of masculine principles of gender inequality and injustice prevalent in societies and governments incompetent in bringing justice and equality in terms of securing the basic rights to health and safety for all (Vieira et al., 2020). Several feminist social workers and coalitions came to the fore to ensure that everyone had access to the necessary information, resources, and support systems during the pandemic. A collective initiative was launched for a feminist policy on COVID-19, which was further communicated to the United Nations members to address the concerns regarding experiences of living in helpless states during the current pandemic, especially for women and girls. The feminist policy stresses the vulnerabilities women face due to their gender and sexual orientation and called for action and solutions from policymakers that will not lead to aggravation of their vulnerabilities and will uphold equality and human rights. One of the concerns highlighted by feminist social workers include efforts to curb violence against women/domestic violence/intimate partner violence (Gender At Work, 2020).

In the current pandemic crisis, feminist social workers have focused their attention on the specific issues women face in confinement and lockdowns. Feminist social workers are ensuring that basic services and support which include hotlines, legal and psychosocial assistance, and shelters are available and accessible to victims of domestic violence, despite social distancing (Gender At Work, 2020). Social workers have a substantial role to counter the various aspects of domestic violence amid COVID-19. The outbreak of COVID-19 has compelled people to stay indoors, which makes women more vulnerable to domestic violence as they cannot go out to save themselves or report the violence. Despite the enormous negative consequences of coronavirus on the existence and perseverance of humankind, nonetheless, COVID-19 has also severely affected the most vulnerable segment of the population, that is, women (Bradbury-Jones and Isham, 2020). The possible reaction to the rise of cases of domestic violence against women in the current times of pandemic is the adoption of the feminist approach (UN WOMEN, 2020).

The responsibilities of feminist social workers range from handling issues of legislation, guidelines, practices, policies, to encouragement, moral support, and advocacy. Feminist social workers demonstrate their commitment to social justice and their professional obligations by working with advocates and other officials to stop and prevent the occurrence of domestic violence against women and to fight for the legal rights and quality services for victims of domestic violence (Social Justice Brief, 2018). Meanwhile, it is also imperative for feminist social workers to stand and raise their voice for oppressed women and children by helping in outlining and modifying the laws, policies, and regulations to reduce the incidence and likely impact of domestic violence on women and those affected (Sserukera, 2020). The prevalence of coronavirus lockdowns has underlined the shortfalls and inadequacies in the reforms and legislation by regulatory bodies around the globe (Leslie and Wilson, 2020). Also, an increase in the number of domestic violence cases during COVID-19 reflect the ineffectiveness in educational systems, which have proved to be unsuccessful in delivering and teaching idealistic values and morals like gender equality, a collaborative approach, harmony, and mutual respect to individuals (Morales Hidalgo, 2020). As the people cannot come out during lockdowns, therefore feminist social workers can urge legislators to integrate and incorporate contemporary, idealistic and feminist values in the prevailing laws and regulations to prevent and stop malicious violence against women in the wake of the prevailing pandemic (Bar and Bench, 2020). As feminist social work follows the principles of gender analysis and observes the prevailing increase in the incidence of domestic violence against women as a weakness in the social system itself, therefore during this pandemic (Riad, 2019) feminist social workers are conducting online interactive sessions for educating people about the inequality in the social system and further consequences of oppressing women by deferring their human and women’s rights (European Council, 2020). Also, feminist social workers are disseminating reliable information through social media platforms to distressed women on combating violence and by involving fellow feminists to find new ways and strategies to help women living with their abusers during lockdown (Black, 2019).

Feminist social work believes that it is imperative to develop new strategies and policies to contact the victims including the adoption of the digital interface during COVID-19 for those who find it difficult to reach help through the conventional ways. Therefore, hotline services offer online chat or texting to seek help while living with their abusers during lockdown (The Guardian, 2020b).

In New Zealand, the Women’s Rights Commissioner discussed with the Ministry of Workplace Relations and Safety the possibility of giving oppressed women in non-essential jobs the excuse to leave home, such as a letter from the employer to work from a particular place for a day or a half. Also, the more violent abusing men under the police Safety Order could be sent to motels for a ‘cooling down’ period. Religious places like mosques and churches can be used as short-term residential places for violent men (nzherald.co.nz., 2020). Moreover, many feminist social workers work with general practitioners, psychologists, and other mental well-being specialists who are frontline workers in dealing with women and their families suffering from domestic violence (Social Justice Brief, 2018). These professionals are formally and ethically motivated to alleviate the physical and mental damages caused to the victim in intimate partner violence (World Health Organization, 2013). In this unprecedented situation where doctors and other paramedical staff are overstrained to save the millions of lives of people infected with coronavirus around the globe, feminist social workers need to counsel women and their children by feminist approaches concerning the potential effects of social distancing, quarantine, and other measures for their betterment and safety, as it is found to be one of the viable solutions during a pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020).

Feminist social workers have made a significant contribution to communities in averting and responding to prior crises and emergencies around the world (UN WOMEN, 2020). The significant role of feminist social workers must be supported, including long-term funding, online counseling, helplines, and psychosocial assistance. Advanced networking tools such as instant messaging, and online platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be very useful, but also social support must be extended to reach abused women without any access to telephones, mobiles or Internet (John et al., 2020). The worst part of the prevailing lockdown is that the intimate partner is ever-present, which gives him more control and fewer opportunities for women to call or message for help (Kaukinen, 2020). Therefore the challenge for feminist social workers is to reach those oppressed who cannot ask for help. To overcome this issue, feminist social workers around the world have responded by instructing victims to go to their nearest pharmacies and by using specific words, they can be traced and eventually protected. In France and Spain, if victims cannot talk openly about the violence they are undergoing, they can use the code word ‘Mask 19’ to the druggist (nzherald.co.nz., 2020).

Amid COVID-19, the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in the country of Nigeria and feminist social workers in Plateau State organized a workshop with associations of local legislators to advise the local community about precautionary measures in the pandemic and to raise awareness through media about the prevention of COVID-19. Moreover one of the members of the REFEADES organization, which works with the victims of domestic violence in eastern Congo, revealed that women in their local community have little access to media platforms. Therefore, the members of their organization have been going door to door to directly reach out to women and girls and educate them about the safety measures, the importance of hygiene, and social distancing during COVID-19 (State of the Planet, 2020). In these times of emergency like COVID-19, feminist social workers are needed more than ever. As their work focuses on the segment of the population which is unreasonably affected by inequality, discrimination and violence, it makes it imperative to protect those women who are at threat in the prevailing crisis and to address concerns such as violence, mental health, safe abortions, menstrual conditions, sanitation and hygiene, and LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex, and queer/questioning) rights (Peterman et al., 2020).

Feminist social workers in Brazil are having the toughest time as they are receiving an appeal for help from victims of domestic violence round the clock. In Italy, feminist social workers of EVA Cooperativa received a call from a sufferer who had locked herself in the bathroom to save herself from the violence of her intimate partner. She was helped by social workers as it was clearly an emergency and even more desperate as the woman couldn’t get out of the house (The Guardian, 2020a). Likewise in the capital, Rome, feminist social workers are providing shelters to the abused women and making extra efforts to reach the sufferers of domestic violence during lockdowns by ensuring that all means of communication are open by keeping telephone lines active throughout and distressed women can also make contact through Facebook and email for help (The Guardian, 2020a). Likewise, social workers have been working to offer and provide essential services to the victims of domestic violence and their children (Social Justice Brief, 2018). Feminist social workers in Port Sudan initiated a campaign called ‘Sudan against Corona’ in which they are making and providing masks to women and spreading awareness about the transmission and prevention of coronavirus through social media (State of the Planet, 2020).

Conclusions and recommendations

A severe and unprecedented pandemic like COVID-19 calls for extraordinary efforts and measures on the part of the feminist social worker to to mitigate the effects of domestic violence on women and children during lockdown and quarantine. The feminist social organizations that work to support and protect women from domestic violence are mostly poorly funded and often discouraged by governmental rules and regulations and are now straining to combat the prevailing crisis with increasing responsiveness (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2020). Feminist social workers are specialists in understanding the problems and suffering of women and are dealing with the utmost responsibility and sincerity to combat the incidence of domestic violence during this pandemic around the world. It is the need of the hour that feminist social workers must be provided with appropriate funding, volunteers and safety equipment to combat the new coronavirus crisis – domestic violence.

A more enlarged role and recognition should be offered to feminist social workers around the world for their contribution to highlighting the concerns of gender inequality and ensuring rights and justice to all, especially to women who are more subjected to discrimination and atrocities in the patriarchal social system. Feminist social workers must stress more on working in developing spaces and creating opportunities where women’s concerns can be heard through digital meetings, online forums, webinars, and open discussions to understand the complexity of situations and issues women face in times of pandemic and being subjected to domestic violence.

The feminist social worker must adapt to the changing requirements of women suffering from domestic violence in the pandemic, which has confined the whole world as in a state of siege, and to ensure the sustenance and basic human rights of all individuals.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Saloome Showkat Shah

Author biographies

Saloome Showkat Shah is a Research Scholar at the Department of Management Studies, University of Kashmir. She has worked as an Assistant Professor for 2 years in the University of Kashmir.

S A Mufeed is a Professor at the Department of Management Studies, University of Kashmir. He was designated for the position of Dean and Director of The Business School, University of Kashmir.

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