The Spanish Gender Regime in the EU Context: Changes and Struggles in Times of Austerity

Abstract

The austerity policies that the EU and the Spanish government have enacted in response to the economic crisis are changing the Spanish gender regime in neoliberal and conservative directions, threatening progress towards a more public rather than domestic gender regime. These changes are signalled by budget cuts in gender equality policies, restructuring of the equality machinery, retrenchment of the welfare state, neoliberal employment policies, stagnation of women’s representation and the restriction of abortion rights. However, feminist struggles against conservative ideologies, women’s resistance towards ‘going back home’ and civil society mobilizations against austerity politics have so far blocked the redomestication of women, thereby contributing to maintaining a public gender regime in Spain.