Description
Feminist IPE has studied intensely the emergence of a new ‘Davos woman’ (Elias 2013) and of ‘transnational business feminism (Roberts 2014) as a legitimising figure in response to the global financial crisis; scrutinising a potential 'dangerous liaison' (Eisenstein 2005) between feminism and capitalism. Yet during the Eurozone crisis, the gendered impacts of its austerity-driven management notwithstanding, (neoliberal) feminism was marginal at best in the public discourse, and gendered representations relied instead on more traditional performances of femininity and masculinity.
This paper investigates the relationship between gender performances and politico-economic crisis responses through a more nuanced analysis. Drawing on performances and newspaper representations of ECB presidents Jean-Claude Trichet and Mario Draghi, and of heads of government Angela Merkel and Silvio Berlusconi, the paper examines the dynamics of gendered performances and discourses on the contested terrain of crisis politics. The paper argues that through performances of frugal femininities, and disciplinary and profligate masculinities, gender provides a rich metaphorical resource to associate politico-economic decisions with dominant cultural and moral discourses, producing (de)legitimising effects. Investigating gendered performative agency contributes to a nuanced and contingent understanding of the intersections of gender, culture, and political economy.
Keywords
Gender, masculinities, austerity, economic crisis, cultural political economy
