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Depleting fragile bodies: the political economy of sexual and reproductive health in crisis situations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2018

Maria Tanyag
Maria Tanyag*
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, Monash University Gender, Peace and Security Centre
*
*Correspondence to: Maria Tanyag, Monash University, School of Social Sciences, 20 Chancellor’s Walk, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia. Author’s email: Maria.Tanyag@monash.edu
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Abstract

In a crisis-prone world, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) uprooted by both armed conflicts and environmental disasters has drastically increased and displacement risks have intensified. Despite the growing attention within global security and development agendas to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), there remain striking gaps in addressing SRHR in crisis situations, particularly among IDP women and girls. This article examines the continuum between social reproduction in times of crisis and the material and ideological conditions that restrict women’s bodily autonomy in everyday life. Using the case of the Philippines where millions of people are routinely affected by conflict and disaster-induced displacements, it argues that the failure to recognise the centrality of women’s health and bodily autonomy not only hinders the sustainable provision of care and domestic labour during and after crisis, but also fundamentally constrains how security is enacted within these spaces. Thus, the article highlights an urgent need to rethink the gendered political economy of crisis responses as a building block for stemming gendered violence and depletion of social reproductive labour at the household, state, and global levels.

Keywords

Feminist Political EconomySocial ReproductionDepletionCrisisGlobal Health
Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , October 2018 , pp. 654 - 671
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2018 

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