ABSTRACT
Feminist economists have been uncovering the gender-differentiated impacts of business cycles and economic crises since the 1980s. This chapter examines some work on how gender shapes the origin of crises and the financialization of the world economy before reviewing three more long-standing debates on state responses to crises, the role of women as a reserve army of labor, and the impact of business cycles on labor market outcomes for women and men. Current contributions have focused on three main issues: women’s exclusion from the decision-making in finance and government that has given rise to crises, the contribution of gender inequality to the cause of economic crises, and a gender critique of international and national policymakers’ focus on GDP-focused growth strategies. One of the key critiques of the cyclical reserve army characterization of women has been that women and men are not straightforward substitutes in the labor market due to the prevalence of gender segregation.
