Gender Regimes Revisited in Times of Economic Crisis

This paper develops a gendered state-theoretical framework to

show how capitalism as an economic system and the nation-state reproduce

gendered hierarchies on multiple levels. With a focus on the symbolic masculine

cultural order and its hegemonic political rationality of governing, the current

economic crisis and its effects on gender regimes is discussed more specifically.

With examples from case studies on new economic governance forms such as the Fiscal Compact and the  ‘Sixpack’ within the

European Union, the material effects of these policies and their symbolic meanings are

highlighted. The paper therefore challenges the varieties of capitalism literature

on gender, arguing that a broader framework of analysis is necessary to capture

the intersectional dimensions of domination in capitalism for different subjects. It asks which institutions play a decicive role in changing gender relations and if

the supranational level has gained momentum in changing gender regimes to a more uneequal set of affairs. In the European Union, the nation state seems to loose ground to a certain extent in this context.