Call for Proposals: Magnifying Inequity: Women’s Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Social Issues
Journal of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
“Magnifying Inequity: Women’s Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic”
Editors: Lisa M. Dinella (ldinella@monmouth.edu) & Megan Fulcher (FulcherM@wlu.edu)

A shift in family organization brought on by stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic may magnify the existing gender gap in family responsibilities, and changes in employment and working arrangements further elevate concerns for women’s health and safety. The Journal of Social Issues (JSI) and special issue editors seek proposals for a special issue on “Magnifying Inequity: Women’s Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” This collection will focus on these risks to women including how such threats are compounded by discriminatory cultural structures that work to disempower women of color and those living in poverty. Early reports in news outlets suggest that women’s workloads and vulnerabilities have increased during this health crisis. The editors want to expand on these reports with careful empirical and theoretical considerations of the processes that underlie such change, as well as long-term ramifications for women, children, and family structure.

We aim to include contributing articles that: apply a range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, focus on issues of intersectionality, cover the multiple domains of women’s work and roles, and describe how cultural structures serve to buffer or escalate risks to women. We are interested in the wide range of impacts on women: financial, social, educational as well as on their physical and mental health. We are particularly interested in topics that are not yet represented in the literature. It is especially important to examine women with diverse lived experiences, including diverse representations of marital status, sexual identity, income levels, immigration status, health conditions, and a full spectrum of racial and ethnic backgrounds. 

Complete submission guidelines can be found online.

We aim to provide authors with feedback about inclusion in the special issue proposal by January 11, 2021.