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Gender Budgeting in Europe pp 57–85Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Challenges of Austerity and Retrenchment of Gender Equality

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Abstract

Reductions in public spending and the dominance of austerity since 2008 have characterized public policy decisions in Europe. Decisions on resource allocation, public service design and reform, changes in social security spending and tax revenue, and in the fiscal rules applied by the EU have significantly affected women’s financial security and autonomy and their political and social status within EU member state countries. With case studies on Spain and Italy, this chapter argues that the entrenched paradigm has disregarded the impact on gender equality and the regressive effects of policy decisions, despite political rhetoric on the enduring importance of advancing gender equality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The initial EU response to the financial and economic crisis was the launch of the European Economic Recovery Plan in December 2008, a coordinated policy action based on financial rescue policies, fiscal stimulus measures, and structural reforms implemented at the national level. After this brief period of overall support to the economy in 2009–2010, there was a decisive shift towards fiscal consolidation. By 2010, the policy response shifted to deep and continuous austerity measures that prevented recovery and assigned the costs of the crisis (including the bank bailouts) on to the general population.

  2. 2.

    The new instruments (Six-Pack, Fiscal Compact, and Two Pack) have been layered onto the institutional framework governing the EMU, strengthening budgetary discipline, while the initiatives to address the social dimension of the EU continued to be based on the voluntary Open Method of Coordination (OMC), with weak surveillance and enforcement and little financial resources to implement social investments.

  3. 3.

    http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/db_indicators/fiscal_governance/independent_institutions/index_en.htm. These “experts” are not accountable to any democratic institution and work in a gender-blind way.

  4. 4.

    See Simonazzi (2015) for an analysis of fiscal austerity policies in Italy and Segnana and Villa (2015) for their effects on women.

  5. 5.

    This effect has also been noted in other countries as shown in McKay, Campbell, Thomson, and Ross (2013).

  6. 6.

    From 2007 to 2010, public spending on social protection increased (from 20% to 24.6% of GDP), largely explained by automatic stabilizers (e.g. unemployment benefit), then decreased (De Villota and Vázquez Cupeiro 2016).

  7. 7.

    A unique benefit which was the same for all families (to be paid when a child is born), it was meant to support low-income families.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Tindara Addabbo

  2. Independent Researcher-Activist and International Consultant, Feminist Economics and Gender Responsive Budgeting, Vienna, Austria

    Elisabeth Klatzer

  3. Austrian Chamber of Labour, Vienna, Austria

    Christa Schlager

  4. University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Paola Villa

  5. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madird, Spain

    Paloma de Villota

Authors
  1. Tindara Addabbo
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  2. Elisabeth Klatzer
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  3. Christa Schlager
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  4. Paola Villa
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  5. Paloma de Villota
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Angela O'Hagan

  2. Independent researcher-activist and international consultant, Feminist Economics and Gender Responsive Budgeting, Vienna, Austria

    Elisabeth Klatzer

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Addabbo, T., Klatzer, E., Schlager, C., Villa, P., de Villota, P. (2018). Challenges of Austerity and Retrenchment of Gender Equality. In: O'Hagan, A., Klatzer, E. (eds) Gender Budgeting in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64891-0_4

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