This book is a unique exploration into the gendered politics of the economic crisis in Europe. It focuses, firstly, on the changes in the political and economic decision-making institutions and processes of the EU and their consequences for gender equality policy. Secondly, the book analyses the gendered impacts of austerity politics on member states’ gender equality policies, institutions, regimes, and debates. Finally, it addresses feminist and intersectional struggles and resistances against neoliberal, conservative and racist politics across Europe. The authors consider the gendered politics of the economic crisis from a variety of feminist approaches, shedding new light on the concept of the crisis and on questions of politics, institutions and intersectionality. The case studies included refer to different parts of Europe, from North to South and from East to West, capturing the multifaceted gendered impacts of the crisis. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, international relations, gender studies, economics, law, sociology, social policy, and European studies.

At no point in recorded history has there been an absence of intense, and heated, discussion about the subject of how to conduct relations between women and men. This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to these omnipresent issues and debates, mapping the present and future of thinking about feminist theory. The chapters gathered here present the state of the art in scholarship in the field, covering: Epistemology and marginality Literary, visual and cultural representations Sexuality Macro and microeconomics of gender Conflict and peace. The most important consensus in this volume is that a central organizing tenet of feminism is its willingness to examine the ways in which gender and relations between women and men have been (and are) organized. The authors bring a shared commitment to the critical appraisal of gender relations, as well as a recognition that to think ‘theoretically’ is not to detach concerns from lived experience but to extend the possibilities of understanding. With this focus on theory and theorizing about the world in which we live, this Handbook asks us, across all disciplines and situations, to abandon our taken-for-granted assumptions about the world and interrogate both the origin and the implications of our ideas about gender relations and feminism. It is an essential reference work for advanced students and academics not only of feminist theory, but of gender and sexuality across the humanities and social sciences.

This volume considers how women are shaping the global economic landscape through their labor, activism, and multiple discourses about work. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of international scholars, the book offers a gendered examination of work in the global economy and analyses the effects of the 2008 downturn on women’s labor force participation and workplace activism. The book addresses three key themes: exploitation versus opportunity; women’s agency within the context of changing economic options; and women’s negotiations and renegotiations of unpaid social reproductive labor. This uniquely interdisciplinary and comparative analysis will be crucial reading for anyone with an interest in gender and the post-crisis world.

This book investigates the barriers to women’s economic empowerment in the Global South. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of countries, the book outlines important lessons and practical solutions for promoting gender equality. Despite global progress in closing gender gaps in education and health, women’s economic empowerment has lagged behind, with little evidence that economic growth promotes gender equality. International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme was set up to provide policy lessons, insights, and concrete solutions that could lead to advances in gender equality, particularly on the role of institutions and macroeconomic growth, barriers to labour market access for women, and the impact of women’s care responsibilities. This book showcases rigorous and multi-disciplinary research emerging from this ground-breaking programme, covering topics such as the school-to-work transition, child marriage, unpaid domestic work and childcare, labour market segregation, and the power of social and cultural norms that prevent women from fully participating in better paid sectors of the economy. With a range of rich case studies from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, this book is perfect for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in the Global South.

The American welfare state has long been a source of political contention and academic debate. This Oxford Handbook pulls together much of our current knowledge about the origins, development, functions, and challenges of American social policy. After the Introduction, the first substantive part of the handbook offers an historical overview of U.S. social policy from the colonial era to the present. This is followed by a set of chapters on different theoretical perspectives available for understanding and explaining the development of U.S. social policy. The three following parts of the volume focus on concrete social programs for the elderly, the poor and near-poor, the disabled, and workers and families. Policy areas covered include health care, pensions, food assistance, housing, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, workers' compensation, family support, and programs for soldiers and veterans. The final part of the book focuses on some of the consequences of the U.S. welfare state for poverty, inequality, and citizenship. Many of the chapters comprising this handbook emphasize the disjointed patterns of policy making inherent to U.S. policymaking and the public-private mix of social provision in which the government helps certain groups of citizens directly (e.g., social insurance) or indirectly (e.g., tax expenditures, regulations). The contributing authors are experts from political science, sociology, history, economics, and other social sciences.

The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements explores the historical, political, economic and social contexts in which transnational feminist movements have emerged and spread, and the contributions they have made to global knowledge, power and social change over the past half century. The publication of the handbook in 2015 marks the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations International Women's Year, the thirtieth anniversary of the Third World Conference on Women held in Nairobi, the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the fifteenth anniversaries of the Millennium Development Goals and of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on 'women, peace and security'. The editors and contributors critically interrogate transnational feminist movements from a broad spectrum of locations in the global South and North: feminist organizations and networks at all levels (local, national, regional, global and 'glocal'); wider civil society organizations and networks; governmental and multilateral agencies; and academic and research institutions, among others. The handbook reflects candidly on what we have learned about transnational feminist movements. What are the different spaces from which transnational feminisms have operated and in what ways? How have they contributed to our understanding of the myriad formal and informal ways in which gendered power relations define and inform everyday life? To what extent have they destabilized or transformed the global hegemonic systems that constitute patriarchy? From a position of fifty years of knowledge production, activism, working with institutions, and critical reflection, the handbook recognizes that transnational feminist movements form a key epistemic community that can inspire and provide leadership in shaping political spaces and institutions at all levels, and transforming international political economy, development and peace processes. The handbook is organized into ten sections, each beginning with an introduction by the editors. The sections explore the main themes that have emerged from transnational feminist movements: knowledge, theory and praxis; organizing for change; body politics, health and well-being; human rights and human security; economic and social justice; citizenship and statebuilding; militarism and religious fundamentalisms; peace movements, UNSCR 1325 and postconflict rebuilding; feminist political ecology; and digital-age transformations and future trajectories.

"The education of girls and women is important not only as a matter of respecting a basic human right for half the population but as a powerful force for economic development and achieving social goals such as enhanced health, nutrition and civic involvement. This Atlas presents the latest data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics on trends in educational access and progression, from pre-primary through tertiary levels and adult literacy, with special attention to the all-important issue of gender equality. These trends are depicted through colour-coded maps that make it easy for readers to visualize global and regional trends and to understand how they are shaped by factors such as national wealth and geographic location." -- P. [4] of cover.