Abstract

The gender mainstreaming was incorporated into the Nicaraguan legal framework in 2008. Accordingly, the Nicaraguan Government has promoted a social communication strategy based on the right to a life without violence. This article analyzes the implementation of these measures during the Zika epidemic, carrying out a critical feminist analysis of government and private media discourses in 2016. The analysis concludes that both actors strengthened the patriarchal structure of social relations by reinforcing gender mandates, obviating the responsibility of the private sector in prevention and hindering access to key information for the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights, which would have affected the performance of prevention policies on gender violence and Zika.

Keywords health policies; gender mainstreaming; reproductive sexual rights; media; power relations