The Syndemic of Race, Gender, and COVID-19: Culturally Comparative Reflections of Intersectional Discrimination

ABSTRACT

This essay explores how women scholars grapple with gender and racial inequality during a syndemic. Using a culturally comparative lens, two mother-scholars, one Afro-Boricua who identifies as Black and the other Thai who identifies as Asian, examine this topic through a comparative international womanist theoretical framework. This discussion provides a brief overview of the challenges faculty women of color have faced around the world in contemporary history. It also interrogates how the professional identities of these scholars inform their teaching, scholarship, and personal lives during a period fraught with anti-Blackness and anti-Asian hostility, gender bias, familial demands, and heightened fear and isolation. Through counter-narratives, their lived experiences are placed into a global context and insightful comparisons spotlight specific challenges that uniquely converge for women of color in the academy. This analytical discussion reflects trends in the field of comparative education by examining the impact of gender and racial discrimination on women scholars of color within political, economic, social, and cultural landscapes.