WOMEN ON THE FRONT LINE OF COVID-19: IMPACTS ON MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBJECTIVITY (Atena Editora)

Abstract

The present study sought to analyze the impacts that the pandemic context generated on the mental health and subjectivity of women who worked on the front lines of Covid-19, understanding the material and subjective conditions to which these workers were subjected. The methodological procedure used in this research is qualitative and exploratory. Seven individual interviews were conducted with a semi-structured script, containing open and closed questions. Regarding the profile of the participants, they had an average age of 49 years, self-declared white, with formal employment, belonging to a high socioeconomic level and had a high level of schooling. The collected data were analyzed under the precepts of hermeneutic-dialectic analysis, with the formation of five categories of analysis to facilitate the identification of shared meanings and own meanings expressed in the speeches. With regard to the results, the interviewees verbalized about the intense workday, the reconciliation between the domestic sphere and the productive sphere, the fear of contamination and transmission of the virus, the feeling of impotence in the face of deaths, the feeling of loneliness in relation to some family members and friends and the presence of solidarity among the professional teams. That said, it was noted that, although they belonged to a high social class and were supported by the institutions in which they worked, the pandemic situation generated psychic and physical suffering in the women in question.