Caring About and For the Cuts: a Case Study of the Gendered Dimension of Austerity and Anti‐austerity Activism

Abstract

Austerity is a feminist issue, given its disproportionate impact on women. Within Nottingham there has been a strong resistance to austerity. However, the key local anti-austerity groups neglect this gendered dimension, resulting in women forming their own community groups to provide practical support to women affected by the cuts. This article explores this feminist response to austerity, raising the question of why this gendered dimension is not visible within key local antiausterity movements. It seeks to answer this question by drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with activists, paying close attention to the gendered barriers and exclusions to activism that exist. In particular, this article explores the complex relationship between care and activism that underlies many of these barriers. Finally, it offers some potential solutions to this key problem.

Family as a eudaimonic bubble: Women entrepreneurs mobilizing resources of care during persistent financial crisis and austerity

“…The material caring of parents or spouse reveals an ethic of care (Sevenhuijsen, 2000) and explains how moral agency emerges from familial relations built on love and cooperation. However, while caring relations have been framed as a negotiated process, gendered patterns in care work undertaken exist, confirming previous findings in care relations (Conlon et al, 2014;Craddock, 2017). Here, we observed how the embodied lowprofile care of the children and household is offered by mother-to-daughter while partners' cooperation is primarily within the business.…”

“…Material caring is based on resources of utility including financial, embodied and logistical support, which was significant in sustaining participants' entrepreneurial activity. However, while caring relations have been framed as a negotiated process, gendered patterns in care work undertaken exist, confirming previous findings in care relations (Conlon et al, 2014;Craddock, 2017). This research advances these studies by further illustrating how forms of logistical care, such as providing a house, and embodied care, including homeworking and childcare, directed towards not only the business, but also to support the family life proved significant for women's entrepreneurial activity during persistent financial crisis and austerity.…”

Feminism and a Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery

“…While the struggle for increased mental health service provision continues in the face of growing demand in Australia and elsewhere, there are also the insidious effects of 'austerity cuts' in countries, such as England, that are reducing the collective provision of parks, leisure centres, community sport, childcare, libraries and health programmes etc. These cuts to public services that contribute to collective wellbeing also have a greater impact on women who have fewer economic resources and greater care responsibilities (Craddock, 2017).…”

Doing ‘enough’ of the ‘right’ thing: the gendered dimension of the ‘ideal activist’ identity and its negative emotional consequences

“…Furthermore, women still face significant structural availability barriers related to traditional gendered roles and caring responsibilities that prevent them from participating politically (Craddock, 2016). Bobel's (2007) key study of 'doing activism and being activist' links such gendered barriers to the extraordinary activist character who is defined by protesting around the clock and therefore less likely to be an identity that women have the opportunity to claim.…”

“…Yet, gendered (and racialized) critiques of austerity are notably absent or inadequate within anti-austerity activism (Craddock, 2016;Emejulu & Bassel, 2015;Maiguashca, Dean, & Keith, 2016). Maiguashca et al's (2016) analysis of feminism within the People's Assembly Against Austerity (PA) (a movement which, along with the local branch of UK Uncut, is one of the biggest anti-austerity groups in Nottingham, the research site this article draws on), demonstrates that where gender is paid attention to (and, notably, it does not feature prominently in the PA's documented ideological vision), women's experiences of gendered oppression are conceived of in economic terms only (Maiguashca et al, 2016).…”