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The full impact of austerity policies across Europe is still being assessed, but it is clear that their gendered impacts have been consistently severe, structural and manifold. They have also been, until now, under-researched and under-estimated. This book brings together the research of leading feminist economists in the area of gender and austerity economics to perform a rigorous gender-impact analysis both at national and pan-European levels. The chapters not only offer thorough evidence for the detrimental gender-impact of austerity policies across Europe, but they also provide readers with concrete suggestions of alternative policies that national governments and the European Union should adopt. With a combination of country case studies and cross-country empirical analysis, this book reveals the scope and channels through which women and men have been impacted by austerity policies in Europe, and goes on to offer readers the opportunity to assess the feasibility and implications of a feminist alternative to continued austerity. This book will be invaluable to social science students and researchers, as well to as policy-makers searching not just for a Plan B to continued austerity policies but for a Plan F - a feminist economic strategy to stimulate sustainable economic recovery.

AbstractThis paper analyses the economic challenges facing Egypt in the post-Mubarak period, demonstrating the ways in which economic policy choices over the 2000s have contributed to the economic and social outcomes witnessed in the run up to the 2011 uprisings. The article investigates three specific policy areas and demonstrates their role in reducing employment opportunities, eroding wages and facilitating the creation of an increasingly unequal economic and social structure in Egypt. The three policy areas addressed by the article are (i) the general misplaced fiscal focus on expenditure-reduction rather than revenue-enhancement and the lack of progressive revenue growth; (ii) the manipulation and use of subsidies in Egypt to appease the populous instead of fostering employment generation; (iii) the failure to adequately promote employment-intensive investment.

This article explores a gendered expansionary macroeconomic scenario for Europe as an alternative to the current direction of austerity policies over the medium to long-term. Using a macroeconomic forecasting model we demonstrate that the dual aim of economic growth and increases in both male and female employment can be achieved via the adoption of gender-sensitive expansionary macroeconomic policies and by overturning austerity policies. Projections for our gendered expansionary macroeconomic scenario suggest that an additional 14 million jobs, of which 9 million are for women, could be created by 2030 in the Eurozone and the United Kingdom by reversing austerity policies and marshalling government expenditure and investment towards female and male employment. We also show that these positive results are not achieved at the expense of high levels of debts and fiscal deficits. The main recommendation is for Europe to roll back austerity policies and to embark on a new gender-focused economic trajectory.