Pandemia e pobreza de gênero: reflexões a partir dos benefícios assistenciais de emergência no período inicial da Covid-19 no Brasil e no Amazonas

Abstract

Poverty in Brazil is an expression of the social issue intersected by gender and race factors. Black and brown women are the main users of public social assistance policies due to unemployment and/or underemployment, which became more acute in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic due to the social isolation measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), leading them to resort to emergency welfare benefits made available by the federal, state, and municipal governments. This research has as its main objective to problematize the gender poverty of women in the initial context of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil and Amazonas. For this, we elected three specific objectives, the first being to contextualize the social impacts brought about by Covid-19 in Brazil, the second to identify the emergency welfare benefits at the federal, state, and municipal government levels, and the third to relate the impacts of Covid-19 on the deepening of women's poverty. To achieve these objectives, we elected a methodology anchored in the materialist-dialectical method. The methodological procedures are based on qualitative research supported by bibliographic and documentary research. The main results of this research showed that female poverty deepened in the initial context of the Covid-19 pademic, especially among black women who, due to their racial background, suffered the most from the effects of the crisis. From these results we can conclude that poverty affects women more, especially black and brown women.