About the Book

Challenging the simplistic story by which feminism has become complicit in neoliberalism, this book traces the course of globalization of women’s economic empowerment from the Global South to the Global North and critically examines the practice of empowering low-income women, primarily migrant, indigenous and racialised women. The author argues that women’s economic empowerment organizations become embedded in the neoliberal re-organization of relations between civil society, state and market, and in the reconfiguration of relations between the personal and the political. Also examined are the contractual nature of institutional arrangements in neoliberalism, the ontological divide between economy and society, and the marginalisation of feminist economics that persists in the field of women’s economic empowerment. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of social sciences, gender studies, sociology, and economics. 

Contents

Introduction: Economic Empowerment Between Feminism and Neoliberalism

The Globalisation of Women’s Economic Empowerment

The Neoliberal Contract: Civil Society, State and Market

Radical Feminists, Mainstream Economics

Construction of the Entrepreneurial Self

Economic Empowerment, Ethno-National Citizenship

Conclusion: A Feminist Always Pays Her Debts

About the Author / Editor

Inna Michaeli is a sociologist who has been deeply involved in feminist and social movements for over two decades. Through her research, she has explored intersections of feminism and neoliberalism as well as identity and belonging, economic globalisation and knowledge production. She currently works at AWID, a global feminist organization.