Why do we need a gender-lens for Covid19? - Q&A

Thaïs González is a PhD candidate at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, investigating ethical concerns at the intersection between gender and health. She holds a MSc in Sexual and Reproductive Health, and has previous experience as Health & Gender Projects Officer at The Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID), both in Headquarters and in Mozambique. Additionally, she has worked for United Nations Volunteers (UNV) in Brazil, promoting innovation for social change among NGOs and grassroot organisations. She is interested in how feminist and decolonial theory can improve cross-cultural health programmes.

Belén Saavedra is a pharmacist, microbiologist, and holds a MSc in Control of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 2016, she joined the group of Tuberculosis at the Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça (CISM) and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) as research coordinator in the laboratory area. She has a personal interest in how social determinants influence health status and, as a female researcher, she draws attention on how gender inequalities affect women’s health and well-being throughout different populations.

Sheila Fernández-Luis is a researcher on HIV/AIDS at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and at the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM) since 2017. She graduated as a physician at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and completed her Pediatric Residency training at Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca. She is currently based in Manhiça, Moçambique completing research activities for her PhD in International Health of the Universitat de Barcelona. In addition to addressing global health inequalities among children, she is recently focusing her work on gender and social inequalities in global epidemics, particularly during the COVD-19 pandemic.