Abstract
Given the pre-existing inequalities within society, questions remain as to how the effect of austere politics over the last decade and the recent effect of the COVID-19 pandemic are impacting the lives of disadvantaged groups in the UK. Prominent questions include how such things as cuts to the welfare budgets and the rise in insecure work affect women’s lived experiences of economic, social and political crises. Austerity, Women and the Role of the State by Vicki Dabrowski is well positioned to answer such questions with its much-needed contribution to the feminist literature on the political and gendered nature of the UK government’s fiscal policies and moral discourses during a period of economic downturn. The text pays particular attention to the disproportionate effect these deeply political responses have had on the real lives of women.
Austerity, Women and the Role of the State adopts an intersectional approach, with powerful and personable qualitative accounts of women, from different socio-economic, geographic and familial backgrounds, who retell their stories of life under austerity. Dabrowski’s main contribution to this expansive literature is in revealing the ability of women, in different walks of life, to steer through the challenges they have faced over the last decade. The focus on class and parenthood is particularly salient and timely given the state’s role, under Conservative-led and Conservative–LibDem Coalition governments, in legitimising austere policies. As highlighted by Dabrowski, the discourse that labelled and positioned working-class women and single mothers as problematic groups, also positioned them as needing to take personal responsibility for their socio-economic situations.
A particular strength of this text is the breadth of empirical data and variety of qualitative research methods used that include in-depth interviews, observations and group discussions, with 61 women in Leeds, London and Brighton between 2014 and 2015. The text manages to weave together historical and theoretical evidence to complement and assist in addressing the empirical data the author presents. Dabrowski’s position on gendered politics is convincing, where she presents critical evidence on a cycle of discourse against women which has taken place at different times and under different political regimes. The author does this by making a compelling comparison between political commentary and policy interventions that span from the early 20th century up to the contemporary day, thus revealing succinctly how women have borne the burden of legitimised policies like austerity and which continue to be justified by the state.
The importance of this monograph is not only in the author’s critical position on gendered politics of blame but also in a criticism of a form of neoliberal feminism which seeks to ‘place individual’s misfortunes into their own hands’ (p. 159). In Dabrowski’s discussion with middle-class women, the deepening criticism of undeserving or unambitious women was foregrounded as a reason for why some women thrived under austerity and others did not. The moral hierarchy of this type of feminism, Dabrowski suggests, sets a dangerous precedent for women, as it reproduces and reinforces the inequalities women face. In agreement with this argument, it was surprising to see the connections made between Dabrowski’s specific criticism of neoliberal feminism and the explicit comments made by some of the women interviewed. There is a powerful message to draw out in this work that requires the reader to reflect on the gendered politics of the last decade and how this discourse has impacted feminist thought and the thoughts of women more generally.
Dabrowski considers her approach to the research in the monograph as ‘messy’, so as to emulate the ‘messiness of the concept of austerity’ (p. 17). Nonetheless, I would argue that the use of focused methods and a separate section in the monograph that explains the methodology deployed could add further strength to the text and in its conclusions. Not taking away from Dabrowski’s immediate focus on the lived experiences of women under austerity, the addition of quantitative data sources could have been a structured way to support the findings and conclusions formed by the analysis of detailed qualitative data. I suggest this approach could even directly address how policy changes under austerity have impacted particular groups of women, like for example lone mothers, in terms of explicit trends. Dabrowski raises salient and critical points on how the politics of austerity directly affect the lived experiences of women, although I would have hoped to read more on the impact of particular policies for my own interests in this much-needed area of research.
Austerity, Women and the Role of the State is an important text that provides a much-needed account of the state’s role in legitimising policies that impact women and how they are positioned in times of crisis. Dabrowski has written an excellent and influential piece that is a must-read for academics, activists and policy-makers interested in understanding the deepening violence of austerity and how it continues to impact upon the lives of women.
