Hashtags as Gender Tools in the Context of the Covid-19 Health Emergency in Argentina

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the discursives present in the #CuarentenaConDerechos and #CuarentenaEnRedes campaigns created by the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity of Argentina, during the first forty days of social isolation preventive and mandatory started on 20 March 2020. Specifically, the focus will be on proposals to raise awareness of gender violence and care bias. To achieve this goal, the impact of these campaigns on Twitter and Instagram will be observed.

The choice for the analysis of these campaigns is that the hashtags #CuarentenaConDerechos and #CuarentenaEnRedes were used by the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity in an indistinct way to denounce simultaneously the increase of femicides that occurred during the social isolation preventive and mandatory in Argentina and the unjust distribution of domestic and care tasks inside the homes. In this sense, a comparative analysis was made between both campaigns and the divergent statements issued indiscriminately on both topics. For this, the observation was made from the socio-semiotics to make a reading of the institutional messages described to identify the significant dimension that was granted to gender-based violence and the distribution of care in this unique historical situation.