The Gender Dynamics of Financialization and Austerity in the European Union—The Irish Case

Abstract

The global financial crisis in the years 2008 following has once more shown how the spheres of production and reproduction are deeply entangled with one another. It highlighted how financialisation came into the realm of private households, as households have been struck by high mortgage, rent and credit debt and how financial products like private pension schemes are part of the social reproduction of households. Financial markets, international development, international trade and international direct investments are therefore directly connected with the sphere of production and reproduction as Diane Elson has pointed out (Elson 2010). While there has been much work on the effects of the financial crisis on the sphere of production and how austerity measures have impacted on gender equality policies and on the labour market participation of women due to cutbacks in the public sector after 2010 (Rubery, 2011; Kurz-Scherf and Scheele, 2013; Klatzer and Schlager, 2014), there have been few gendered analyses on how the politics of financialisation is interwoven with social reproduction and private households in the European Union (EU). Women are disproportionally affected by austerity in Greece, Great Britain, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia and other member states (Annesley and Scheele, 2011; Young et al., 2011; DG Justice, 2013; Karamessini and Rubery, 2014; True and Hozic, 2016).