TY - JOUR
T1 - Navigating the digital informal economy during the COVID-19 pandemic
T2 - vignettes of Sri Lankan micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs
AU - de Silva, Nedha
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Oxfam KEDV.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Globally, women have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the impact has varied between groups of women, women in the informal sector, mainly those managing micro- and small-scale businesses, have been severely affected. Drawing on the case of urban Sri Lanka, this paper explores the challenges that women owners of micro- and small-scale businesses faced during the pandemic and how they leveraged digital technologies to overcome these challenges. The paper adopts a feminist intersectional lens, which examines the everyday experiences of women in gendered economies through semi-structured interviews conducted in three phases during the pandemic. The first section of the paper details the challenges that women faced during the pandemic, including issues of mobility, competing care responsibilities, lack of institutional support, financial security, and health. The second section discusses how women used digital tools such as social media to overcome these challenges. The paper argues that although digital tools were initially used in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, they have been permanently incorporated into everyday entrepreneurial practices of women.
AB - Globally, women have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the impact has varied between groups of women, women in the informal sector, mainly those managing micro- and small-scale businesses, have been severely affected. Drawing on the case of urban Sri Lanka, this paper explores the challenges that women owners of micro- and small-scale businesses faced during the pandemic and how they leveraged digital technologies to overcome these challenges. The paper adopts a feminist intersectional lens, which examines the everyday experiences of women in gendered economies through semi-structured interviews conducted in three phases during the pandemic. The first section of the paper details the challenges that women faced during the pandemic, including issues of mobility, competing care responsibilities, lack of institutional support, financial security, and health. The second section discusses how women used digital tools such as social media to overcome these challenges. The paper argues that although digital tools were initially used in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, they have been permanently incorporated into everyday entrepreneurial practices of women.
KW - care
KW - digitalisation
KW - everyday life
KW - informal economy
KW - Women-led enterprises
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143444177&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13552074.2022.2131259
DO - 10.1080/13552074.2022.2131259
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85143444177
SN - 1355-2074
VL - 30
SP - 477
EP - 495
JO - Gender and Development
JF - Gender and Development
IS - 3
ER -