Pandemic and social production of mental suffering in women

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss briefly the possible negative effects of COVID-19
public health emergency on women’s mental health. Considering that both a pandemic and its
social consequences act as potential generators of psychic suffering – as recent literature and
feminist authors suggest–, we question some structural violences permeating into Brazilian
women’s subjectification processes and how these violences are aggravated by the present context.
We call attention to the worsening of social inequalities, such as machism, racism, LGTBphobia
and poverty, since women are affected by them in different ways. We conclude by putting
under the spotlight the fact that more studies recognizing the importance of genre to both the
subject construction and the experience of mental suffering are needed.