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Miranda Joseph, University of Arizona
There is substantial evidence that women have been particularly hard hit in the current economic crisis, over-represented in the "subprime" mortgage market and therefore in foreclosures. While certainly some were subject to predatory and fraudulent lending practices, this does not explain the vulnerability perceived and exploited by aggressive lenders (were these borrowers being "girls" about money?), nor the desires (for homes, for credit itself, or what, really, did they want?) that drove the borrowers. That is, the role of financial subjectivity remains to be explored. This presentation will ask whether and how gender is constituted through the performance of personal financial attitudes and behaviors (budgeting, bill paying, managing credit and debt, etc.). As a first step towards answering that question, l explore gendered social norms for financial behaviors as evidenced by social texts including financial advice and talk shows such as The Suze Orman Show and Oprah films such as Confessions of a Shopaholic, government documents and programs promoting homeownership, contemporary media representations of debtors and academic studies of debtors.
Sarah Hall, University of Nottingham
The gendered identities of individuals working within financial services in the City of London is a well-established subject of academic, political and media debate. Whilst some commentators have emphasized the declining power of 'gentlemanly capitalism' and 'old boys networks', others have adopted post-structuralist approaches to examine the continued dynamic and contested nature of gendered identities within finance. However, the majority of this work has been conducted during a period of rapid financial services expansion. Much less is known about how the ensuing 'global' credit crunch has impacted upon the performativity of gender and gender relations in financial services work. In response, in this paper I draw on research conducted into the training courses run by investment banks in the City of London from 2006 onwards to examine the changing ways in which such courses seek to perform and (re)produce gender and essentialised gender relations amongst investment bankers in the wake of the 'global' financial crisis. In particular, I consider how the crisis has been scripted as being caused by 'male' bankers who undertook 'excessive risk taking' to meet their desire for'instant gratification'. I then explore critically how investment banks have sought to adapt their training courses in an effort to (re)produce 'feminine' investment banker subjects whom, they argue, embody a more 'nurturing' and 'caring' mindset. I conclude by examining how this gendered understanding of the crisis and the resulting changes in investment banking training can contribute to wider debates about both the international financial system and understandings of the changing relationship between gender, gender relations and the economy.
Wendy Larner, University of Bristol
This paper interrogates the concept of cultural intermediaries through an analysis of the New Zealand designer fashion industry, an industry composed of small networked enterprises which offer a wide range of educational, aesthetic and business services. We argue that ‘cultural intermediaries’ can no longer be thought in terms of particular occupations, spaces or events. Instead, cultural mediation is more productively thought of as a function of the multiplicity of activities and relationships organized around the new economic spaces (in this case of the fashion industry), all of which are subject to the exigencies of capital accumulation. We show that the diverse participants in the fashion field, which includes not only those who make and sell fashionable clothing, but Fashion Week organizers, industry representatives, policy makers, hairdressers, makeup artists, models, and fashion stylists amongst others, are all producing, mediating and consuming fashion and fashionability in what Bovone (2005) has called a ‘virtuous circle’. Moreover, the proliferating activities that comprise the New Zealand fashion industry and the ‘virtuous circle’ they create are profoundly gendered, both in terms of women’s numerical dominance and the gendered skills and attributes that these activities mobilise. The growth of the industry and the associated proliferation of small businesses has allowed women to identify market niches and develop economic opportunities that fit with their self-described ‘lifestyles’. This is not simply a reinscription of the longstanding dilemma of combining paid and unpaid work, although this is clearly part of the story. Rather, these women are quite explicitly developing small gendered businesses in fashion related fields that allow them to ‘live their dreams’. They are all producing, mediating and consuming fashion; making up the complex economic and cultural networks which comprise the fashion industry and also supporting the industry through their own fashion consumption and the creation of a broader fashionable sensibility. It is in this context we ask ‘Who needs cultural intermediaries indeed?’
Harriet Bradley, University of Bristol
This paper will discuss some of the patterns of gender change in the economy over the last decades, focusing on the notion of the knowledge-based economy as a key discourse of the 1990s and early 2000s but also considering the early impacts of the current recessionary phase. The increasing success of women in achieving educational qualifications, combined with the continuing growth of service employment, seemed to hold the promise of further feminisation of labour markets, and, if not of the breaking down of structures of gender segregation, at least some further erosion. To explore why this has not been the case to the degree expected some aspects of the dynamics of the labour market will be discussed: the utilisation of male power to resist feminisation; the problematic insertion of the notion of care into the sphere of production; consumption trends promoting exaggerated versions of masculinity and femininity; and the intensification of practices of modern motherhood, which make it increasingly incompatible with labour market involvement. Focusing on the younger generation, with examples drawn from interviews, the implications of these trends for the gendering and regendering of work relations will be considered, utilising Glucksmann's concept of the total social organisation of labour.
