Between local historiography

and gender issues: the

municipality of Jaboatão dos

Guararapes-PE and the

contamination of the female

population (covid-19)

Estrabão

Vol(3):64–74

©The Author(s) 2022

DOI: 10.53455/re.v3i.19

Milka Lopes Beserra

, Franciele Maria Costa Ferreira

and Cristiana

Coutinho Duarte

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic, which started in 2020, has reached all spheres that structure living in

society on a global scale. Regarding those most affected by the problems caused by Covid-

19, regional-population studies together with gender issues related to the female gender in the

municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, become one of the ways to dimension the difficulties

brought by the pandemic on a regional scale. In this sense, this article seeks to build a dialogue

between the following social issues: the population studies, the gender issues on a regional scale

(municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes) linked to the problem of the Covid 19 pandemic, the

agents that sought to mitigate the impacts economic factors brought by the pandemic and possibly

understand the ways in which the virus has largely reached the female population in this region and,

finally, demarcate the measures taken by municipal management to contain the pandemic in 2020

until the present day, as well as point out which are the interfaces of this socioeconomic system that

maintain the various issues of women’s daily lives and how with the arrival of the pandemic they put

them in one more position of social vulnerability (Covid-19).

Keywords

Regional study, Jaboatão dos Guararapes, gender issues., Covid 19.

1Department of Geographical Sciences, UFPE, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Emails: milkabeserra@gmail.com (Milka Lopes Beserra), franciele.costa@ufpe.br (Franciele Maria Costa Ferreira)

Corresponding author:

Cristiana Coutinho Duarte, Department of Geographical Sciences, UFPE, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Email: cristiana.duarte@ufpe.br

65 Estrabão (3) 2022

Introduction

The region as a functional representation of space has its own historiography and needs to be studied.

Therefore, for the present analysis, the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes was chosen due to its

history of territorial formation based on bloodlines or the centralization of land power among some

families. This reality or way of managing the geographic space had repercussions in several areas of

Brazil and, as a perpetuation of these powers (land - industry) in the 16th century, the processes of

monoculture and sugar exportation began, with the territorial construction of coastal municipalities and

the Zona da Mata of the state of Pernambuco, and the need for slave labor. In view of this, the first

people clusters appear with the emergence of villages and later cities. The municipality of Jaboatão dos

Guararapes, arises on May 4, 1593 from two regional events: the sale of the mill called São João Batista,

sold to Bento Luiz de Figueirôa and the need for space for the occupation of people who migrated in job

search (V, Avós, & Recife, 1982).

Even in the face of these regional events, the socioeconomic development of this municipality

maintained the forms of spatial domination. In the past, dominations under land and its productivity

were common, now it is due to commercial domination coming from those same families that already

owned commercial establishments and also started to manage a large part of the movement of capital

in the municipality. Currently, there are some symbolic marks left throughout the history of economic

and territorial formation of the municipality. They are perceptible through the naming of streets, schools,

squares and avenues with the names of large landowners and commercial and industrial establishments.

In addition, they are noticeable through the marks left by the Covid-19 pandemic, which began in Brazil

in February/March 2020 and has repercussions until the present day, bringing severe problems to all

humanity, however, each country, state or municipality, had their particular forms of actions to face the

pandemic.

With regard to the pandemic and those most affected by it, gender issues refer to social realities

that have repercussions as a series of vulnerabilities. Women, in turn, are part of groups that go through

various social difficulties. In this sense, this article seeks to discuss how the pandemic intensified gender

issues, more precisely the issues faced by the female gender. Discussions on the contamination of women

(Covid-19) will be addressed, seeking to measure the impacts of Covid-19 in the municipality of Jaboatão

dos Guararapes (2020 - 2021). Also, an investigation will be carried out on how the municipality of

Jaboatão dos Guararapes developed initiatives so that families, and especially women were being assisted.

Finally, an analysis will be carried out on the amount of population death by neighborhoods in

view of the various forms of occupations developed in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes,

as well as the measures taken by municipal management to contain the advance of the disease, thus

emphasizing, population studies to measure the social impacts and calamities potentiated by the arrival

of Covid-19 and other social events. It was also sought to contribute to the studies developed by

Health Geography, understanding the most recurrent vulnerabilities in the neighborhoods of Jaboatão

dos Guararapes (JOURNALS, 2018).

Beserra, Ferreira and Duarte 66

Methodology

Location of the study area

The municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, located in the southern zone of the Metropolitan Region of

Recife (MRR) (Figure 1) currently occupies a territorial space of 257.3 km2, with 23.6 km2 comprising

the urban area and the remaining 233.7 km2. forming the countryside. It is estimated that the urban

population represents 98% of the total population. Thus, it is visible that the population is concentrated

in a small area of the municipality and the western portion has a more rarefied occupation with land still

dominated by the cultivation of sugarcane. On the hills, some communities advance with spontaneous

occupations, emerging areas of environmental risks and deficient infrastructure. It is considered the

6th municipality with a population residing in risk areas, with 29.2% of the total population based on

2010 census data (IBGE, 2018). Its population was estimated for 2018 (IBGE) at 697,636 inhabitants,

therefore, it is the second most populous municipality in the state of Pernambuco.

According to GDP data (IBGE, 2013), the total wealth produced by the municipality is

13,217,350,000.00 reais (the second largest in the state) and the city’s GDP per capita is R$ 19,410.36,

being the eighth largest in the state. It has a Human Development Index (HDI) considered high,

0.717. However, there is a significant concentration of income and structural problems with significant

deficiencies in infrastructure and access to piped water and basic sanitation on the part of a less favored

and socially vulnerable portion of the population, in almost the entire municipality (Figure 1). The Social

Vulnerability Index (SVI) for the municipality of Jaboatão was 0.414, considered high, since the range

from 0.400 to 0.500 is considered high and the closer to 1 represents the worst condition. This index

corresponds to the weighted arithmetic mean of two normalized indices of three dimensions: SVI Urban

Infrastructure (0.491); SVI Human Capital (0.366) and SVI Income and Work (0.389) (COSTA, 2015).

The 2 neighborhoods with the highest values of average monthly income of people responsible for

the household, which exceed R$ 1,000 are the neighborhoods of Piedade and Candeias, mainly in the

buildings located on the edge of the municipality. The municipalities of Barra de Jangada, Curado,

Engenho Velho, Prazeres, Vargem Fria follow in sequence, with average incomes below R$ 800.00

in 2010. Incomes below R$ 500.00 can be identified in the neighborhoods of Santana, Muribequinha,

Comportas and Dois Carneiros (Figure 1). Therefore, it is necessary that the investigations carried out

by the IBGE and IPEA are constant to demarcate the demographic dynamics at different scales and in

different historical periods (OLIVEIRA E SIMÕES, 2005).

Source: Prepared by the authors. Data source: IBGE (Territorial Limits, 2020) and Demographic

Census 2010.

Cabinet and interview stage:

During the research carried out in the cabinet, it was sought to understand the regional qualifications

of the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, as well as the reading of authors who address the

themes of population studies along with gender and Covid-19 issues. As it was also sought to produce

a bibliographic analysis through works already produced with this segment and consultations to the

Epidemiological Bulletins of the municipality of Jaboatão present on the website of the city hall of this

municipality to investigate the daily contamination rates of the female population in the months of March

2020 and April 2021 in order to monitor the results of contamination both between the neighborhoods of

the municipality and also between the female and male population. It was also sought for demographic

67 Estrabão (3) 2022

Figure 1. Location map of the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes and distribution of average monthly

income by census sector

Beserra, Ferreira and Duarte 68

data aggregated by census sectors and later by neighborhoods, such as: total population, number of men

and women per household, race/ethnicity and average income, based on the 2010 Demographic Census

Information Base: Results of the universe by sector IBGE census.

The interviews were carried out remotely via the WhatsApp App with women living in the municipality

of Jaboatão dos Guararapes to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic affected their daily lives (2020

and 2021), in view of the problems of functional gender representation already existing in society. The

interviews were produced in the following ways: two women living in the municipality of Jaboatão dos

Guararapes were interviewed with a structured interview and applied through messages via WhatsApp

App, the question produced and answered by these women were the following: "How did you feel in

2020 through the Covid-19 pandemic in view of your daily responsibilities?” and “How do you deal with

the pandemic today and with your daily obligations in 2021?” so that it was possible to build a parallel

between the realities experienced from the beginning of the pandemic to the present day and how this

implies in daily life

Results and discussion

The arrival of the new coronavirus through population studies made it possible to measure the difficulties

brought to the world, either in terms of controlling the virus or in relation to population density, which

before the arrival of Covid-19 already presented risks to the population, and, during the pandemic, it

is emphasized as another factor that puts the socially disadvantaged in vulnerability and an example of

these impacts is the aggravation of gender issues linked to women and their various social responsibilities

beyond their professional attributions.

As a result of the interviews produced remotely, a woman resident of the municipality of Jaboatão dos

Guararapes made available the report of her reality in 2020 with the arrival of Covid -19: “Well, as I was

a babysitter in 2020, I needed to use public transport to get around Jaboatão, the pandemic was horrible

and made everything difficult, I started to work as a babysitter to help with the household expenses.

My son stayed at home alone, the municipality did not provide any specific support for the mothers of

the family. The fear of catching Covid-19 was and is constant for taking a crowded bus every day, the

isolations that the city hall decreed were not so monitored on a daily basis, a number of people stayed at

home and the others had to go outside to don’t go hungry at all. As a woman, I often felt weak and alone,

the fear of contaminating myself with this disease only grows every day.” (Inhabitant of the Municipality

of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, resident of the Padre Roma neighborhood, 2020).

Monitoring the evolution of the disease and its social impacts made it possible for the city hall of the

municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes to take several measures in order to follow the protocols of the

World Health Organization (WHO) and reduce the impacts caused by Covid-19 in the municipality.

Throughout 2020 to the present day, some decrees were created to prevent the spread of the new

coronavirus, some decrees were created to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Following a

chronological order of the worsening and the measures taken by the municipality’s management of the

pandemic, we can observe some changes in the behavior of the population through contingency measures

through municipal decrees.

In March 2020, the city hall decreed a state of public calamity with the closure of most services

offered in the municipality and launched some virus contingency decrees: it prohibited any type of

crowded environment and the policy of cleaning spaces began. Classes in public and private schools

69 Estrabão (3) 2022

were suspended, gyms and establishments that did not offer essential services were closed. At first, all

measures were adopted by the population, but with the social inequalities existing in the municipality of

Jaboatão, the population, as of April, began to neglect the necessary care to avoid contagion by Covid-19.

The relaxation of the measures subsequently caused an increase in the contamination of Covid-19.

Based on the evolution of the spread of the disease and the release of decrees by the city hall,

an analysis of table 1 shows a greater number of confirmed cases in the female population in the

neighborhoods of Curado and Prazeres located to the Southeast in the municipality of Jaboatão dos

Guararapes considering the socioeconomic conditions of social vulnerability of women living in these

neighborhoods. On the other hand, the neighborhood of Prazeres, considered middle class, located to the

Northwest near the coast, was also reported a similar amount to the neighborhoods considered to be less

favored in the municipality

As of May, the city hall launched some new decrees (May - Nov 2020): it reinforced protective

measures and decreed that all establishments that were authorized to operate follow all WHO protocols,

there was a relaxation of protective measures, being released several outdoor activities and finally (2020)

the release of services and events with a capacity of up to 300 people. As a result of these new measures,

in 2020, Jaboatão dos Guararapes recorded 322 deaths and 3,302 confirmed cases (REAL, 2020).

In 2021, the city hall in January publishes the only decree produced to date in Jaboatão dos Guararapes,

where it reaffirms the state of public calamity still experienced by the population of the municipality,

and as a result of this, the level of contagion of the population by Covid -19 grew between males and

females through the relaxation of contingency measures produced by municipal management and the

daily demands of the population. The Figures represents the spatial distribution of the numbers of cases

(Figure 3) and deaths (Figure 2) accumulated on April 4, 2021.

Source: Epidemiological Bulletin of the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes on 04/01/2021

The neighborhoods of Candeias and Bulhões stand out for being opposites: Candeias concentrates

more than 10% of the Jaboatonense population, on the other hand, in Bulhões they are only 0.02%. The

differences also stand out in terms of the percentage of gender and income, the number of women in

Candeias is greater than the number in Bulhões and the glaring difference of more than one thousand

reais in basic income (Table 1). Candeias is located on the coast and Bulhões in the rural area, they

exercise different lifestyles, it is known that in the rural area they exercise a rough work style and the

location far from urban centers compromises the access to information and health of its inhabitants and

this may explain the percentage of deaths per thousand inhabitants of Bulhões, which is 320.51 while

Candeias is 16.75.

It is clear that all the weaknesses that existed before the pandemic were strengthened with it (health,

unequal income distribution, urban mobility, etc.), with regard to those most affected by the problems

caused by Covid-19, gender issues, with emphasis in the female population, from the functions of these

subjects in society, are wide open. As a reaffirmation of this unequal reality, a resident of the municipality

of Jaboatão dos Guararapes reported how her daily life in 2021 with the permanence of Covid-19: “The

coexistence with Covid 19 is currently absurd, every week I go downtown, specifically in Praça do

Rosario and walking around there it seems that the virus no longer exists. There is no social distancing, the

population is literally at the mercy and exposed to Covid 19. As a woman I feel overwhelmed, doing not

only my chores, but also those of my grandparents to prevent them from exposing themselves when going

out on the street.” (Inhabitant of the Municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Padre Roma Jaboatão

Centro neighborhood, 2021)”.

Beserra, Ferreira and Duarte 70

Figure 2. Spatial distribution of the numbers of death accumulated on Apri 04/01/2021 in the municipality of

Jaboatão dos Guararapes.

“Hunger, unemployment, uncertainties, anguish, one runs here and another there to get some buck.

This is how women heads of families, most of them black and single mothers, from the outskirts of

Jaboatão dos Guararapes, in the Recife Metropolitan Region, in Pernambuco, have faced the coronavirus

pandemic. Considered the second largest city in Pernambuco, with 702,000 inhabitants, and one of the

first to report cases of contamination in the state, talking about isolation and social distancing where many

of the families were already crowded before the pandemic in one-room houses, seems like a guideline

difficult to follow.” (RIBEIRO,2020)

In order to mitigate the socioeconomic impacts brought by the pandemic to living in the municipality

of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, an ’Intersectoral Action of the NASF-AB team’ was formed and this activity

was developed as follows:

“The NASF-AB team managed to develop several activities such as the distribution of masks and

gel alcohol; guidance on Emergency Aid; advance of the Continuous Cash Benefit Programme (BPC)

for applicants awaiting the expertise; guidelines on prevention, social isolation, services for assistance

in situations of domestic violence against women, children, adolescents, the elderly; communication

71 Estrabão (3) 2022

Figure 3. Spatial distribution of the number of cases accumulated for 04/01/2021 in the municipality of

Jaboatão dos Guararapes.

activities through the preparation of booklets; incentive to create online groups for therapeutic listening

and for users with mental health demands.”(APSREDES,2020).

Mothers, family caregivers, heads of families, health professionals, teachers, self-employed, women

caregivers of the elderly, women domestic workers, homeless people, residents of the periphery, women

who suffer domestic violence, among many other appointments that dimension the characteristics of

all women living in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes account for 339,770 (52.71%) female

inhabitants in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, according to the 2010 census (IBGE, 2010).

Even with lower rates compared to the percentages of male contamination in most neighborhoods by

Covid-19 (2020 - 2021), women with the arrival of the pandemic had their realities changed and the

female population of Jaboatão dos Guararapes experience another challenge living in society.

Beserra, Ferreira and Duarte 72

Table 1. Population, gender, race and income data by neighborhood in the municipality of Jaboatão

dos Guararapes

NEIGH- % DEATH/10 % % % % AVERAGE

BOR-

HOODS

POPU-

LATION

THOUSAND

INHB

MEN

WOMENWHITE BLACK INCOME

CANDEIAS

10.02

16.75

46.40

53.60

49.94

48.50

2065.27

PIEDADE

9.97

18.54

46.79

53.21

46.82

51.83

2363.88

CAJUEIRO

8.16

19.24

47.04

52.96

32.87

65.98

620.01

SECO

CURADO

7.19

17.92

46.93

53.07

38.85

59.76

757.91

GUARARA-

6.06

12.57

46.95

53.05

34.42

64.44

643.50

PES

CAV-

6.00

20.71

47.16

52.84

34.74

64.28

575.51

ALEIRO

BARRA DE

5.62

12.99

47.85

52.15

32.89

65.83

785.22

JANGADA

PRAZERES

5.52

26.16

47.45

52.55

33.00

65.49

735.32

VILA RICA

4.61

17.84

47.34

52.66

33.96

64.49

643.56

ZUMBI DO

4.37

11.39

46.91

51.94

33.38

65.31

620.57

PACHECO

JARDIM

4.19

21.49

48.11

51.89

31.69

67.45

563.41

JORDÃO

MURIBECA

4.06

11.48

47.74

52.26

33.49

65.17

583.01

SUCUPIRA

4.03

14.25

46.57

52.12

33.90

65.24

572.33

SANTO

3.42

21.36

47.40

52.60

34.34

64.21

646.86

ALEIXO

MARCOS

3.22

9.17

47.15

52.85

36.76

61.20

690.12

FREIRE

DOIS

3.05

14.77

48.50

51.50

29.36

69.89

488.09

CARNEIROS

CENTRO

1.94

34.36

47.03

52.97

35.70

62.95

687.54

VISTA

1.68

33.23

46.62

53.38

35.40

63.45

647.86

ALEGRE

FLORIANO

1.67

2.80

48.81

51.19

33.05

65.67

641.93

RURAL

1.12

0.00

50.21

49.79

24.66

74.63

393.39

ENGENHO

1.11

33.47

47.29

52.71

35.29

63.93

743.38

VELHO

SANTANA

0.92

6.75

47.46

52.54

29.11

69.28

412.63

SOCORRO

0.89

57.37

48.38

51.62

34.26

63.86

695.12

COMPOR-

TAS

0.45

6.97

48.03

51.97

27.26

70.30

484.18

MURIBEQUINH0.A30

10.25

48.72

51.28

13.82

84.95

415.34

MANASSU 0.26

0.00

48.52

51.48

28.54

70.28

648.70

VARGEM 0.12

FRIA

are

ing

agej.cls

0.02

0.00

320.51

48.44

51.92

51.56

48.08

34.67

28.21

64.71

71.79

707.57

588.33

Data source: Epidemiological Bulletin (04/01/2021), Health Department of Jaboatão dos Guararapes; Demographic Census 2010

(IBGE)

73 Estrabão (3) 2022

Final considerations:

This article expresses itself with the role of opening paths for further investigations on the female issue

in the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it was sought to portray how the daily lives of women were

affected by the changes brought about by the new coronavirus in the municipality of Jaboatão dos

Guararapes. From the study on screen, we emphasize the importance of geographic studies linked to the

health geography, since the various attributions that geographic studies have, such as mapping, spatial and

statistical analyzes, for example, are still being essential for the development of mechanisms for disease

control at national, state and municipal scales. Based on the results presented in this work, it is noted that

covid-19 produced higher rates of mortality and contagion in the male population of the municipality

of Jaboatão dos Guararapes. But given the structural aspects (gender and sexist) of society, women, for

the most part, because they are historically neglected, will be impacted by the various unfoldings of the

pandemic and will suffer longer than men. With the arrival of the new coronavirus, new situations of

social abandonment proved to be another way of measuring which gender issues still exist and how the

various functional gender inequalities are represented in society.

Faced with these historical difficulties of the female gender, it is noticeable that some nuances of the

first issues addressed in population studies of gender are still perpetuated and the social division of labor

is a faithful portrait of these situations (spaces formulated so that the participation of women exists in

their majority, such as also spaces that exclude them). The municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes in

the year 2020 did not consider these difficulties and the women who needed to work were neglected due

to the lack of assistance from the municipality and some of these had to abandon their jobs (no daycares,

no schools, no income). It is apparent that the overload of these existing issues prior to the pandemic were

potentiated with it and the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes placed them in one more position of

gender vulnerability.

Acknowledgements:

The Federal University of Pernambuco and the Department of Geographical Sciences for providing us

with the Population and Environment Subject as a free subject, enabling the expansion of our learning. To

the IBGE and IPEA research bodies for providing demographic, socioeconomic and vulnerability data.

To the Health Department of the Jaboatão dos Guararapes City Hall for publishing the epidemiological

bulletins. To the NASF-AB for the dissemination of its social work, which greatly contributed to

our analysis of the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes. We thus extol the importance of these

institutions and the research carried out by them.

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