Prevention and Care during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Masculinities as a Double-Edged Sword for Men and Women in Church Leadership in some Malawian Urban Churches

Abstract

In Malawi, about 70% of confirmed COVID-19 cases were men, and about 83% of those who died of COVID-19 were men as of between January 2020 and August 2020.  This article focuses on the  masculinities of men in leadership positions, particularly how it affects  health-seeking behaviour during COVID-19 in Malawi.  Most church pastors are men and they have the ability to influence, positively and negatively, COVID-19 responses through concepts of masculinities.  Religious ethnography and grounded theology generated data for this paper.  The study was based on men in leadership positions in selected urban churches in Malawi between 2021 and 2022.  The paper uses a gender analysis developed by the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.  We found that some concepts of masculinities of men in church leadership negatively influenced COVID-19 care and treatment to the detriment of pastors and their members.  We also found that certain concepts of masculinities of church men in leadership positively influenced health-seeking behaviors of pastors and some members of the church.  This article contributes to Circle theologies promoting ordination as a strategy to increase agency of women in the affairs of the Church and shows a link between agency and COVID-19 response in Malawi.