COVID-19 PANDEMIC AS AN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE IN A FEMINIST APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

COVID-19 PANDEMIC AS AN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE

IN A FEMINIST APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Covid-19 Pandemic as an International Security Issue

The covid-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 in Wuhan, China, has become an

important issue and problem for the world. Covid-19, better known as the corona virus, is

now a serious threat to global security. Most countries in the world pay special attention to

dealing with the spread of the virus which has claimed human lives and poses a serious

threat to the security of the state and each individual. In the initial section, the author will

convey about the study of international security in international relations and the covid-19

pandemic as an international security issue. In the dynamics of international politics, it is

impossible not to include international security issues as one of the important parts to be

studied and understood1 . We can see this phenomenon every day in the world. In this part of

the world, one of them is through the news either from newspapers or television, we can get

information on people who have lost their lives due to starvation, torture, rape and even loss

of access to education from certain parties on behalf of security. This makes the topic of

security even more interesting to study.

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged from Wuhan, China in late

2019, and spread to all corners of the world. This shows global vulnerability and the

importance of global health security as a picture of policy, politics in a pandemic and

readiness towards an endemic in the sense of living with this virus that is unlikely to

disappear according to sources of world health experts. According to data submitted by

researchers from Johns Hopkins University in 2020 there were more than 95 million cases of

COVID-19 globally, with case notifications on all continents from 188 countries. the death

toll reached 2,033,072 using official country data; the actual number of deaths is likely much

higher2 . Health Safety Index Global 2020 lists the United States, China and the United

Kingdom as the countries best prepared to manage a major public health crisis The failure or

underpreparedness of countries to confront and manage this outbreak demonstrates the

importance of political awareness and policy: broadly to understand global health and

security specifically as a pandemic that threatens human safety.

According to WHO, global health security has become the dominant framework in

global health policy. Borrowing the understanding of the Copenhagen School, which in IR

studies is known as the constructivism approach. Conceptually / socially health can be

considered as an international security threat (Non-Traditional Security Thread). Non-

traditional security includes climate change, access to water and food needs, energy, TNCs

and even health. Anything can be a security threat when it comes to threatening the safety of

individuals to live safely and comfortably. Covid-19 / Corona Virus refers to this

understanding has become a global security issue. Because covid has become an infectious

disease that causes fear and a high level of social disruption and is an economic, social and

political burden on society and the state.

Feminism and Covid-19

A theory or perspective can be understood as a way to focus our attention in a way

that helps us understand the world around us and then offers a prescription/formula for

action.3 . The study of international relations and international security has traditionally

focused our attention on the state as an important actor and the individual/people have been

somewhat neglected though not neglected can deny its role. Similarly, feminist approaches

do not shy away from the important role of the state, but they do emphasize the role of

gender in international security studies. Each feminist perspective draws our attention to

different ways of thinking about gender, different ways of conceptualizing the gendered

nature of international security and different ways of responding to global political

problems.

There are several variants of feminist perspectives, but this does not mean that there

is no overlap and that insights from one perspective or another can be combined.

Nonetheless, it is useful to map out some of the fundamental differences between the most

important approaches to feminist theory to understand the different emphases and

understandings. Here are some variants of feminism: First, liberal feminism, in its view this

variant focuses on the question of women's representation in the public sphere. This group of

approaches seeks to gather empirical information about the role of women. Are women

present as decision-makers in the field of international security? If not, why not? Are they

present in national militaries? When are they present, what is the impact of their presence,

and if they are absent, what are the barriers to their participation? Many liberal feminists

focus on the ways in which within governments and international institutions, women

remain grossly underrepresented. Where women are present, they are still largely relegated

to supporting roles, and are not prominent in decision-making. Secondly radical feminism, in

contrast to liberal feminism, for radical feminists, women and men are fundamentally very

different from each other (and fundamentally very similar to each other). Whether as a result

of biology or socialization, radical feminists tend to agree that men as a group are less

capable of expressing emotions, more aggressive and more competitive while women as a

group are more nurturing, more holistic and less tangible..

With this view, many of the ways in which society is organized support the power of

men over women known as patriarchy and the privileging of masculine norms. Radical

feminists differ from liberal feminists in that they see politics as ubiquitous but not limited

to the public sphere of life. Third, critical theory feminism, this group often argues that

prevailing norms associated with masculinity, as much as with femininity, should be

examined, and also that these norms can han ve a major impact on men, especially

marginalized men.

Critical feminists also insist that assumptions around women and men/masculinity

and femininity take place not only at the level of discourse, but that gender also depends on

the real, material, lived circumstances of women and men at a particular time and place,

which include: but are not limited to the conditions of race, class, sexuality, ethnicity and

religion. And fourthly postmedernist feminism, argues that any definition or point of view is

bound to be partial and any attempt to presuppose a single or universal truth needs to be

deconstructed. Deconstruction entails exploring, unraveling and rejecting the assumed

naturalness of certain understandings and relationships, and examining the impact that 'taken

for granted' assumptions and understandings have on our ability to act in the world.

In the covid-19 outbreak, women's groups, in the view of feminism, are the most

severely affected. First, women are at the forefront of the crisis, representing 70% of the

health workforce in the care sector. This means that women are exposed to a greater risk of

infection, because they are in close contact with patients every day of the COVID-19 ward.

Moreover, the roles they perform have increased the workforce - with health workers

working all day and increasing rotations in emergency rooms and COVID-19 wards to

manage the demands of extraordinary events. So, these women are disproportionately

working longer hours; in some places these health workers have been separated from their

families, Second, as people stay at home, the sectors most affected are the food and beverage

services, hospitality, tourism, and leisure industries, the areas that predominantly employ

women.