Reconceptualizing resilience and vulnerability in liberal feminist discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has prompted the growing recognition and reevaluation of vulnerability theory as proposed by Fineman (2008), which emphasizes the central role of the state in protecting citizens from their ‘vulnerability’ by providing their access to ‘resilience’. It challenges the traditional construction of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ in liberal discourse, which has typically emphasized individual capabilities over community roles. To investigate the impact of this recognition on the construction of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ in liberal feminism discourse during COVID-19, discourse analysis was conducted among nine COVID-19-related briefings from the Fawcett Society website. Two main changes in liberal feminism discourse were revealed in this research. First, there has been a shift from a focus on self-resilience among women's groups to an acknowledgement of their weakened resilience in front of COVID-19. Second, liberal feminists delve into the passive characteristic of ‘vulnerability’ during COVID-19, recognizing the susceptibility of women's groups to their inner mental issues. The discourse constructed by liberal feminists during COVID-19, as evidenced by the collected briefings from the Fawcett Society website, also reveals the ‘hidden social inequality’ that existed in the long-standing undervaluation of socially reproductive workers, which has been exposed by the pandemic and necessary the need for increased social recognition of their role in maintaining daily social functions.