Damaris Seleina Parsitau

Damaris Seleina Parsitau (born 1968) is a Kenyan scholar of religion, a gender equality advocate, and feminist. She has published extensively on issues of religion, gender and society with a focus on Pentecostal Christianity. She is the first African woman president of the African Association for the Study of Religion and its Diaspora (AASR) and the first African woman Director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is also part of the community of social justice scholars and practitioners at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice. Quotes Though job and wage losses have been widespread under COVID-related economic restrictions, women and girls remain the most vulnerable. Indeed, 92 percent of working African women are in the informal economy, leaving them without job security or benefits. Under lockdown measures and without social safety nets, informal workers have had to face the tough decision whether to break the lockdown, risking both their health and legal repercussions, or go without income. Because of prevailing social norms, African women and girls traditionally shoulder the majority of family care responsibilities, including child care, domestic chores, and caring for the weak, the sick, and the frail in their families and society more broadly. Indeed, even before the pandemic, globally, women and girls carried out incredible burdens for their families and societies—shouldering an estimated three times more the amount of unpaid care and domestic work than men Creating all-inclusive social policy and cushioning vulnerable families during and after the crisis would go a long way in protecting vulnerable women and families. At the same time, investing in women in small and large business will better secure the financial and economic health of families and economies. External links Category:Living people