Abstract:
This study presents a systematic review of the research into care practices by African authors with a feminist perspective. The research question has been developed through the strategy known as PICo: participants, phenomenon of interest and context. In our case, these are women, feminism and care practices, and sub-Saharan Africa respectively. After the process of filtering 102 selected articles, twenty studies met the inclusion criteria. They were organized into three broad categories using thematic analysis: HIV epidemic; crisis of social reproduction, and Afro-communitarian care. The papers examined explore cultural practices and traditional gender roles as risk or protective factors for contracting HIV; the overload of care work that African women face with regard to the crisis of social reproduction; and the Afro-communitarian proposals in relation to care.
Keywords:
Care; African Feminisms; Gender Studies; HIV; Afro-Communitarianism
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Source: Authors' own elaboration#ForEveryoneToSee This figure shows the revision procedure. The first step was the identification of articles found in different databases, 114 and 185 in AfricaBib; 22 in Pubmed; 16 in Psychinfo; 84 in Africa Wide Information; and 44 in Scopus. The second step was screening. Applying the PICo: Women, Care & Feminism, Sub-saharian Africa; we select 102 articles after removing 14 duplicated. Third step was eligibility. Applying the exclusion and the inclusion criteria, we find 30 articles eligible, 65 not eligible and 6 not reviewable. In the fourth and last phase, included, we resumed each of the 30 eligible articles with an analysis sheet and then we included 16 article and excluded 14. After that, we addes 4 articles through a snowball of included article references. Finally, we selected 20 articles for the review. The materials analyzed in this review are qualitative studies: case studies, ethnographic studies, substantiated theories, participatory action research, narrative analysis and studies of feminist critique. The review focuses on scientific articles, excluding books and grey literature, due to the difficulty of systematizing them. The selected articles were published between 2007 and the first quarter of 2018. Regarding the authorship of the articles, to determine whether the research met the requirement of being produced by African author(s) both the current institutional affiliation of the authors as well as their life stories were taken into account. Authors affiliated to African institutions and researchers with African origins educated in African countries but currently enrolled in institutions outside the continent were included. The searches were carried out in English