{"id":224038,"date":"2020-07-07T16:34:57","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T20:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=224038"},"modified":"2020-07-07T16:35:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T20:35:36","slug":"do-cuban-women-fear-covid-19-more-than-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/do-cuban-women-fear-covid-19-more-than-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Cuban women fear COVID-19 more than men?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Help us keep OnCuba alive\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The results of the study \u201cGender and Fear of COVID-19 in a Cuban Population Sample<\/a>\u201c show that women living on the island experienced significantly greater fear of COVID-19 than men. In the sample, made up of 772 participants over the age of 18, being a woman was a predictor of medium and high levels of fear of the pandemic. The information was collected through an online survey, between April 4 and May 27, 2020, when the country was in full enforcement of the containment measures to counter the advance of the disease.<\/p>\n

Just one day after the survey\u2019s information was collected, Dr. Francisco Dur\u00e1n, director of the Department of Epidemiology of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (and authoritative voice on the development of the pandemic in the country) responded in his daily report to the question: why do more men than women die from COVID-19 in Cuba?<\/a> Dur\u00e1n affirmed that \u201cthere is indisputably a higher percentage of men who have died in Cuba from this disease\u201d and explained the cause: the angiotensin-2 converting enzyme, which predominates in the male sex.<\/p>\n

In the world, gender has been ruled out as a determining factor for the spread of the disease. That does not mean that its effects are undifferentiated for men and women. The United Nations sums it up in this phrase<\/a>: \u201cThe coronavirus does not discriminate against women, patriarchal gender norms do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Cuba, a greater number of men died from the disease, but women were more afraid of it. What does it mean that they show greater fear?<\/p>\n

Women and COVID-19 in Cuba<\/strong><\/p>\n

The study \u201cGender and Fear of COVID-19 in a Cuban Population Sample\u201d reviews scientific evidence on the two sides of fear. On the one hand, it can be beneficial, by increasing the perception of risk and, with it, the prevention of contagion measures. However, on the other hand, it is associated with higher levels of anxiety, anger, depression, and increased risk of suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cFear is a basic emotion developed by numerous species for survival and is activated in the presence of a real danger (like a virus, even if it is \u2018contained\u2019),\u201d explained to OnCuba<\/strong> Dr. Boris C. Rodr\u00edguez Mart\u00edn, Doctor in Clinical Psychology<\/a> and one of the five authors of the research. He adds that \u201cthe good thing about the study, which goes beyond this publication\u2014there\u2019s another one under review\u2014, is that the responses were collected at various times and this allowed us to analyze how fear fluctuated in the beginning\u2014when with the present danger it was not known what was going to happen\u2014and in the middle of the confinement, when it was already seen that the situation in Cuba was being controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the specialist, \u201cit\u2019s not only the fear of getting sick or dying, there is also the fear for children or family members. The fear of COVID is much more than the fear of COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United Nations determined<\/a> three ways in which the new coronavirus has particularly affected women: in their health, in the care of the home and family, mostly in their care, and by the increase in violence against them during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

OnCuba<\/strong> reflected the concerns<\/a> that protection measures in the face of the crisis on the island would contribute to dismantling inequalities in care tasks, which create a second working day for women in paid jobs. Unpaid work within the home, which increases with the presence in it of all its members, continues to be romanticized as part of the gender roles assigned to women.<\/p>\n

For its part, the increase in violence against women during the pandemic has been documented<\/a> throughout the world, given that many have been confined to the same space with their aggressors.1<\/sup><\/strong> In Latin America<\/a>, violence has skyrocketed. The situation reaches the point that UN Secretary General, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres made a call<\/a> \u201cfor peace in homes,\u201d a space where women and girls should feel safer.<\/p>\n

The relationship between violence against women and restriction of mobility during the pandemic is clear. In Cuba, at least five femicides have been registered<\/a> since confinement began, four of them at home.<\/p>\n

The platform Yo S\u00ed Te Creo en Cuba<\/a>, which created in April a protocol<\/a> to accompany victims of male violence during the confinement, confirmed to IPS<\/em><\/a> that, through its telephone counseling, it has accompanied 30 women, between 18 and 70 years of age, due to \u201cphysical, psychological, police, sexual violence and a case of obstetric violence.\u201d The platform published on June 2 the complaint of the inaction of the police in a case of violence against three women in Havana, to which they affirm: \u201cWe have run out of tools and their lives are in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is precisely why the protection of women experiencing violence<\/a> must extend from the police intervention and investigation system to the judicial and reparation system for victims and their families.<\/p>\n

Cuba: (Feminist) requests to political society and civil society in the face of COVID-19<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n