IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/epolit/v39y2022i1d10.1007_s40888-021-00243-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gendering the crisis: austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Luíza Matos Oliveira

    (FLACSO-Brazil)

  • Magali N. Alloatti

    (Independent researcher)

Abstract

In this article, by showing that the burden of retrenchment in social spending in Brazil has been overwhelmingly borne by women, we assert that austerity is not gender neutral. Our research investigates the specificities of the gendered impacts of austerity in the country that have rendered Brazilian women structurally more vulnerable to the Covid-19 crisis. We base our argument on a comprehensive literature review summarizing the links between austerity and gender. In the Brazilian case, we explain women’s vulnerability in two main aspects: (1) the direct and indirect gendered impacts of austerity in Brazil since 2015, examining the underfunding of policies prior to the pandemic; (2) the gendered effects of the pandemic on already vulnerable groups, amplified by the underfunded policies and the lack of appropriate measures. We show points of proximity between the existing literature on austerity and gender in the Global North and the urgent, structural Brazilian problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Luíza Matos Oliveira & Magali N. Alloatti, 2022. "Gendering the crisis: austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(1), pages 203-224, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolit:v:39:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s40888-021-00243-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s40888-021-00243-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40888-021-00243-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40888-021-00243-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tindara ADDABBO & Amélia BASTOS & Sara Falcão CASACA & Nata DUVVURY & Áine NÍ LÉIME, 2015. "Gender and labour in times of austerity: Ireland, Italy and Portugal in comparative perspective," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 154(4), pages 449-473, December.
    2. Izaskun Barba & Belen Iraizoz, 2020. "Effect of the Great Crisis on Sectoral Female Employment in Europe: A Structural Decomposition Analysis," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-24, August.
    3. Matteo Deleidi & Mariana Mazzucato, 2019. "Putting Austerity to Bed: Technical Progress, Aggregate Demand and the Supermultiplier," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 315-335, July.
    4. Antón, José-Ignacio & Muñoz de Bustillo, Rafael, 2013. "Public-private sector wage differentials in Spain. An updated picture in the midst of the Great Recession," MPRA Paper 48897, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Alicia Girón & Eugenia Correa, 2016. "Post-Crisis Gender Gaps: Women Workers and Employment Precariousness," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 471-477, April.
    6. Cristiano Perugini & Jelena Žarković Rakić & Marko Vladisavljević, 2019. "Austerity and gender inequalities in Europe in times of crisis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(3), pages 733-767.
    7. Suzanne J. Konzelmann, 2014. "The political economics of austerity," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 38(4), pages 701-741.
    8. Hélène PÉRIVIER, 2018. "Recession, austerity and gender: A comparison of eight European labour markets," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 157(1), pages 1-37, March.
    9. Mariana Mazzucato & Rainer Kattel, 2020. "COVID-19 and public-sector capacity," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 256-269.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Perugini, Cristiano & Žarković Rakić, Jelena & Vladisavljević, Marko, 2016. "Austerity and gender wage inequality in EU countries," MPRA Paper 76306, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Pompeo Della Posta & Enrico Marelli & Marcello Signorelli, 2020. "A market‐financed and growth‐enhancing investment plan for the euro area," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 604-632, July.
    3. Izaskun Barba & Belen Iraizoz, 2020. "Effect of the Great Crisis on Sectoral Female Employment in Europe: A Structural Decomposition Analysis," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-24, August.
    4. Pompeo Della Posta & Enrico Marelli & Marcello Signorelli, 2022. "COVID-19, Economic Policies and Public Debt Sustainability in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Manuel Arellano & Stéphane Bonhomme & Micole De Vera & Laura Hospido & Siqi Wei, 2022. "Income risk inequality: Evidence from Spanish administrative records," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1747-1801, November.
    6. Matteo Deleidi & Claudia Fontanari & Santiago José Gahn, 2023. "Autonomous demand and technical change: exploring the Kaldor–Verdoorn law on a global level," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 57-80, April.
    7. Aleksandra Anić & Gorana Krstić, 2019. "What Lies Behind The Gender Wage Gap In Serbia?," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 64(223), pages 137-170, October –.
    8. Nomaler, Önder & Spinola, Danilo & Verspagen, Bart, 2021. "Demand-led industrialisation policy in a dual-sector small balance of payments constrained economy," MERIT Working Papers 2021-038, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. José A. Pérez‐Montiel & Carles Manera, 2022. "Is autonomous demand really autonomous in the United States? An asymmetric frequency‐domain Granger causality approach," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 78-92, February.
    10. Jorge Luis Tonetto & Adelar Fochezatto & Josep Miquel Pique, 2023. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Use of the Menor Preço Brasil Application," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, October.
    11. Eckhard Hein & Valeria Jimenez, 2022. "The macroeconomic implications of zero growth: a post-Keynesian approach," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 19(1), pages 41-60, April.
    12. Deleidi, Matteo & Mazzucato, Mariana & Semieniuk, Gregor, 2020. "Neither crowding in nor out: Public direct investment mobilising private investment into renewable electricity projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    13. Radeef Chundakkadan & Rajesh Raj Natarajan & Subash Sasidharan, 2022. "Small firms amidst COVID‐19: Financial constraints and role of government support," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 51(3), November.
    14. Philipp Heimberger, 2021. "Do Higher Public Debt Levels Reduce Economic Growth?," wiiw Working Papers 211, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    15. Martínez-García Miguel Á. & Cámara Ángeles, 2022. "Impact of an Economic Crisis on Youth Employment: Evidence from 2008 Financial Crisis in Spain," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 276-287, January.
    16. Mindaugas Butkus & Giovanni Schiuma & Ilona Bartuseviciene & Ona Grazina Rakauskiene & Lina Volodzkiene & Laura Dargenyte-Kacileviciene, 2023. "The impact of organizational resilience on the quality of public services: Application of structural equation modeling," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 18(2), pages 461-489, June.
    17. Okubo, Toshihiro, 2022. "Traveling and eating out during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Go To campaign policies in Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. John R Bryson & Chloe Billing & Mark Tewdwr-Jones, 2023. "Urban infrastructure patching: Citizen-led solutions to infrastructure ruptures," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(10), pages 1932-1948, August.
    19. Katona, Márton & Petrovics, Nándor, 2021. "Válság és együttműködés. A koronavírus-járvány okozta lehetséges intézményi változások és a kooperatív közszolgáltatások [Crisis and cooperation: possible institutional changes caused by the corona," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 76-95.
    20. Hui Zhang & Huiying Ding & Jianying Xiao, 2023. "How Organizational Agility Promotes Digital Transformation: An Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-13, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Austerity; Public policy; Gender inequality; Covid-19 pandemic; Brazil; Welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • N36 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:epolit:v:39:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s40888-021-00243-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.