The Research Excellence Team, in collaboration with KMTV and the School of Law, Society, and Social Justice, hosted the launch of Professor Eslava’s research documentary along with a panel discussion. Professor Luis Eslava, Professor of International Law at Kent Law School, and his colleagues from the Ruptures21 initiative, are at the centre of this new documentary ‘Colombia’s Women: A Hidden Workforce’.
The documentary, which is part of the ‘Life/Gender/Work: Invisibility and Social Reproduction in Tumaco’ project – a large research undertaking that focuses on acute gender, economic, racial and political inequalities in Colombia – aims to generate new knowledge and support policy debates in Colombia and internationally on the importance of establishing national systems of care, in a post-pandemic world where communities are confronted with a wave of financial, environmental, and security challenges. It captures first-hand the ground-breaking use of a mix-method research approach and the close collaboration with women and key stakeholders in the project. Taking viewers from Bogotá (Colombia’s capital city), to Cali (the largest city near Tumaco), and to Tumaco itself, the film journeys the efforts entailed in generating academic research that has a global impact.
The project brings together a group of 24 interdisciplinary scholars, local art collectives, local Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and research institutes, including the Observatory for Women’s Equity and the Women’s World Bank Colombia, to explore the vital contribution of women’s work to maintain life in zones of conflict, using the town of Tumaco – located on Colombia’s Pacific Coast – as a main case study.
Funded by the University of Kent, University of Essex and University of Warwick, the Life/Gender/Work project’s main outputs include the collection of new data on women’s economic and labour conditions and their sexual health based on a survey of 578 women in Tumaco; invaluable qualitative data gathered through focal groups; outreach events with local organisations and public officials; and a full training programme that benefited 30 women and men in positions of community leadership in Tumaco.
Watch the English version and Spanish version on Youtube.