Financialization and Gender

The concept financialization has been used to characterize the increasing importance of global finance – including new actors such as investment- and pension funds as well as a hermetically closed financial culture, which is shaped by abstract mathematical reasoning. Deregulation and liberalization of financial markets, suspension of capital controls, dominance of share-holder value in corporate finance, as well as expansion of credit- and assets markets for private customers have led to a qualitative change culminating in a finance capitalism, which has restricted the political space of states and the financial flexibility of firms.

While increasing number of studies has analyzed this shift, gender studies have paid less attention to this topic. The intent of the paper is to analyze from a gender perspective the change from State Keynesianism to Private Keynesianisms which is based on private debt financing to ensure aggregate demand. In this new mode of accumulation, there are at least three different ways in which global finance has reshaped gender relations. Most directly is the impact of corporate governance modes on resource allocation among stakeholders and shareholders. This channel of transmission restricts the ability to transfer resources from profitable corporate sectors to less profitable ones. Secondly, financial governance shapes how risks are “down-loaded” and individualized. These governance arrangements have a decisive impact on how risk sharing is organized in society. Thirdly, financial markets and the specific crisis resolution mechanisms of austerity have led to a “fiscal squeeze” which increases the pressure to downsize public expenditure.