The Gendering of Global Finance

"This book examines the gendered structures of global financial markets. It maps out crucial economic, cultural and socio-historical processes which excluded women from (formal) financial activities in Britain and then on a global scale. The author argues that, with the contemporary deepening of financial markets, there has been a resultant shift as women are targeted world-wide as an emerging market for credit and finance, which has crucial implications for increased levels of insecurity and risk"--Provided by publisher. This book explores the gendered nature of the historical emergence of modern finance markets and their expansion to a now global scale. It analyses the ways in which women were and still are marginalized in terms of financial activity and associated structures of power which play a critical role in shaping the contemporary global political economy. The financial crisis which erupted in 2007 brought to the fore the very assumptions of competition and risk which underpin financial market relations. Despite tantalizing but rare glimpses of women's involvement within this sector in past centuries, financial markets emerged very much as a male domain. This book explores the gendered nature of the historical emergence of modern finance and its expansion to a now global scale. It analyses the ways in which women were and still are marginalized in terms of financial activity and associated structures of ideological and cultural power, which continue to play a critical role in shaping the contemporary global political economy Machine generated contents note: Introduction * Period of Historical Change: The Organisation and Reorganisation of Gendered Relations * Credit and Finance in Transition: Women as Clogs to Progress * The Marginalisation of Women to the Realm of the Disorderly * Embedded Liberalism: Embedded Gendered Beliefs * Income Maintenance and Financial Inclusion * Financial Inclusion: A Deeper Share of Wallet? * Conclusion Introduction * Period of Historical Change: The Organisation and Reorganisation of Gendered Relations * Credit and Finance in Transition: Women as Clogs to Progress * The Marginalisation of Women to the Realm of the Disorderly * Embedded Liberalism: Embedded Gendered Beliefs * Income Maintenance and Financial Inclusion * Financial Inclusion: A Deeper Share of Wallet? * Conclusion. Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-21 Period of Change: Historical Context....Pages 22-48 Property and Gender: Irrational Women and Rational Men....Pages 49-68 Emergence of Gendered Credit and Financial Institutions....Pages 69-106 From Formal Financial Institutions and Orderly Men to Informal Markets and Disorderly Women....Pages 107-129 Global Financial Markets: ‘Add Women and Stir’....Pages 130-157 Deepening the Circuits of Credit: Gender and ‘a Deeper Share of Wallet’....Pages 158-186 Back Matter....Pages 187-215

This book examines the gendered structures of global financial markets. It maps out crucial economic, cultural and socio-historical processes which excluded women from (formal) financial activities in Britain and then on a global scale. The author argues that, with the contemporary deepening of financial markets, there has been a resultant shift as women are targeted world-wide as an emerging market for credit and finance, which has crucial implications for increased levels of insecurity and risk.

Review: 'An impressive contribution of this book is its rigorous deployment of gender as an analytical category that connects the dots between the everyday micro-practices of financial life and structural features of the global economy. Its rich historical detail reminds us that gendered relations of credit and finance have transformed over time and across myriad forms of political and economic organization.' - Professor Mary Condon, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada