Providing During a Pandemic: A Scoping Review of Female Breadwinners

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had negative impacts on many communities across the globe, and, in particular, these impacts have disproportionately affected women. Indeed, preliminary research and reporting on the effects of the pandemic indicate an upsurge of various forms of gender-based inequities in the workplaces and homes of women. In this article, I consider these inequitable effects via the experiences of a particularly vulnerable group of women: female breadwinners. Women who undertake the role as breadwinners overcome traditional notions of gender by becoming breadwinners in their homes and providing primary financial support for their families. By contextualising the lived experiences of female breadwinners through a feminist theoretical framework, we can comprehend their experiences of multiple forms of discrimination and vulnerability, as magnified by COVID-19. Awareness of the challenges faced by female breadwinners, in South Africa and across the globe, encourages gender-sensitive and contextualised interpretations of their experiences during COVID-19. Through a scoping review of recent local and international research, this article exposes the perpetual discriminations of gender in many communities that affected the ability of female breadwinners to provide during the pandemic. In understanding how these women make meaning of and negotiate their roles as breadwinners, this article highlights the literature gap concerning the experiences of female breadwinners during COVID-19. Considering gender-based polyvictimisations amplified by the pandemic, the article further deliberates on recommendations to ameliorate the lived experiences of female breadwinners.