The potential for transformation of deep-rooted inequalities and marginalization comes in historic moments, is often subverted by powerful vested interests, and when it does happen, is a “messy process.” This book takes us on one part of the transformative journey through the lived realities of women and communities across the global South during and post the Covid-19 pandemic. In the face of an “unforgiving intellectual property system” and the mutual entanglement of corporate strangleholds and rising state authoritarianism, unrelenting gendered-civil society activism offers hope for a radical politics of care with diverse but collective pathways to equality and social justice. Covid-19 is but one milestone. A must read.

Chee Yoke Ling (Executive Director, Third World Network)

The world has turned a blind eye to the COVID-19 pandemic – as if it was just a blip, an anomaly in countries' trajectories and lived experiences. With sufficient distance to take a historic perspective, but with the lived experience fresh in our collective memory, this book takes an intersectional and feminist perspective to examine the policy responses to the pandemic, either marked by austerity and path dependency or by innovation and change (with varying degrees of success), and the instances of resistance and transformation led by the social movements. This book is a necessary and timely eyeopener, breaking new ground in feminist analyses and supporting renewed feminist advocacy and activism.

Valeria Esquivel