Women's work at end of life: The intersecting gendered vulnerabilities of patients and caregivers in rural Malawi.

Gender inequality in the form of gender-based violence manifests throughout the course of women's lives but has a particularly unique impact at end of life. We sampled 26 patients and 14 caregivers for this qualitative critical ethnographic study. The study purpose was to describe the lived experience of female palliative care patients in rural Malawi and their caregivers. The specific aims were to (i) analyse physical, spiritual and mental health needs and (ii) guide best healthcare practice. The study was informed by feminist epistemology, which drew us to an analysis focused on how gender inequality and gender-based violence affect the care of those with terminal illness. In this article, based on our findings, we demonstrate how gender inequality manifests through the intersecting gendered vulnerabilities of patients and their caregivers in rural Malawi. The findings specifically provide insight into the gendered nature of care work and how the gendered life trajectories of both patients and caregivers intersect to impact the health and well-being of both groups. Our findings have implications on how palliative care can be scaled up in rural Malawi in support of women who are experiencing intimate partner violence at end of life, and the caregivers responsible for their well-being.

Raising Questions About Capitalist Globalization and Universalizing Views on Women: A Transnational Feminist Critique of the World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development.

Nursing in the United States has embraced global health primarily from a clinical perspective, with emphasis on care delivery to populations in underserved, resource-poor settings. Less attention has been devoted to developing expertise about social, economic, and political contexts that produce ill health around the world. The purpose of this article is to offer a transnational feminist critique of the World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development and to illuminate implications such reports may have in the lives of the world's most marginalized women and girls. We examine the political economy idealized in the report, raising questions about the capitalist framework underpinning its agenda. Second, we examine the assumptive language used in the report, suggesting that it discursively constructs a problematic representation of women in low-income countries. We contend that the report perpetuates a hegemonic discourse of patriarchy and inequality for women in the Global South through the use of an uncontested economic framework and universalist reasoning. We conclude the article with discussion about a transformative policy making that could be more inclusive of the wisdoms, values, and everyday experiences of women living in the Global South and about the vital role nurses can play in advancing gender equity through their active collaboration in policy critique and policy formulation.