Details
Though austerity has prevailed across Europe to varying degrees, Greece in particular faces a situation of permanent austerity. The fiscal consolidation programs implemented since 2010 have brought extensive cuts to the public sector, over-taxation, privatizations, institutional reforms, devaluation of labour, high unemployment and precariousness.
The social crisis provoked by fiscal austerity has also had major negative impacts on gender equality, undermining important employment and social welfare protections and putting gender equality policies on hold. Austerity halted progress towards gender equality, causing deeper gendered segregation in the labour market and a downward levelling of gender gaps in wages, working conditions and poverty.
Νevertheless, racial and gender inequality reinforced in the context of the neoliberal regime are being taken up by the political agenda and discourse of the country’s large scale anti-austerity movement. New forms of political praxis and organizing have emerged in which women and youth occupy crucial political roles. In this context, a more intersectional approach and relation was promoted between the antifascist, antiracist, feminist, and LGBTQI movements.
This study explores the gendered dimensions of the austerity regime in Greece, focusing on labour relations, political participation, interpersonal and interfamilial relations, care, gender-based violence, social and political rights. Moreover, it seeks to contribute to a transnational overview of austerity’s gender-related impacts in search of alternative strategies from a feminist perspective.
Contents
- Ιntroduction
- An Overview of the Impact of Austerity Measures on Women. Labour, Social Insurance, Welfare
- Social Rights under Austerity: an Intersectional Approach
- Analysis of the Resulting and Underlying Societal Changes
- Analysis and Recommendations to Left Actors
- References
- Biography
This paper explores the gendered dimensions of the austerity policies implemented in Greece since 2010 in the context of the Economic Adjustment Programs and in particular their impact on the lives of women.
(Ιn collaboration with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Athens)
Author's biographical details
Aliki Kosyfologou lives in Athens. She received a doctoral degree in Political Science and Sociology (PhD) from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her expertise lies in the area of gender representation and ideology, as well as in cultural politics. She currently lectures on cultural theory in the Municipal Theatre of Central Greece School. She is a founding member of the feminist activist group Kiouri@.
