Women’s Work in the Pandemic Economy : The Unbearable Hazard of Hierarchy

This book explores two unique studies of women’s economic behaviour during Australia’s COVID-19 crisis. The first describes the care ‘frontline’ in the feminised labor sectors of healthcare and education, identifying extreme workload pressures, deteriorating conditions, and a shockingly high incidence of workplace bullying: including women targeting other women workers. The author argues workplace cultures are almost inevitable in Australia’s advanced neoliberal economy, where a patri-colonial legacy continues to devalue and under-resource women’s work. In contrast, a second study of voluntary care provisioning taking place in ‘hyperlocal digital sharing networks’ over the same period identifies very different economic behaviours. Here, women – and occasionally men – instead engage in ‘care-full’ labors of gifting, collective provisioning, and hive mind problem-solving, that align with the gift economy models seen in degrowth theory. This book will interest scholars in gender studies, sociology, and economics, particularly those interested in care work, the gift economy, and women’s labor. Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: The Business of Caring Introduction Employment Impacts of COVID The Care Frontline A Tale of Two Economies Culture and ‘Imagination Infrastructure’ The Importance of Caring Towards a Degrowth Imaginary In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 2: Generation Expendable? Introduction Changes to Circumstances Resilience to Change Changed Conditions of Work The Education Frontline Healthcare Services Worker Agency The Dual Discriminations Relationships and Workplace Culture Psychological Harms at Work What Wasn’t Asked In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 3: The Toxic Workplace: For Women Introduction A National Culture of Bullying? Pandemic or Endemic? Neoliberalism In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 4: A Tale of Two Economies Introduction Gendered Bullying A Bullying Predisposition? History of the Gift Gift Versus Exchange Decolonising and Degrowth In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 5: Working by Gaslight Introduction The Social Glue Virtual Caregiving Good Karma Methodology: The Gift Highway Care in the Time of Corona Material Gifting Non-material Gifting Seeking ‘Non-material Gifts’ The Gift of Care Beyond Money Working by Gaslight In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 6: A Hidden Gift Economy? Introduction A Gift Economy? Open Localisation A Renewed Sense of Place Free of Judgement Frugal Abundance Conviviality The Gift of Time Care-full In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 7: The Unbearable Hazard of Hierarchy Introduction The Gift Alternative Bad Karma Toxic Positivity? Moderating the Gift Economy Decolonising the Growth Imaginary Reciprocity or Quid Pro Quo? In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 8: Economy as a Gender Construct Introduction A Gendered Economy Men as Gendered Individualism Not Collectivism Corporate Feminism and the Girlboss A ‘Maternal’ Gift Economy? If Growth Is Patriarchal, Then Why Not (Re)matriation? In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 9: Pathways Out of Capitalism Introduction Masculinity as Radical Selfishness The Care-full Workplace ‘Imagination Infrastructure’ and the Plastic Brain In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 10: Antiwork Introduction Rage Rooms, ‘Screamatoria’ and Dropping the Hot Potato r/antiwork Burnout ‘Corporate Feminism’ From Antiwork to Degrowth In This Chapter ... In the Next Chapter ... Chapter 11: A Degrowth Reality Introduction The New (COVID) Normal A Degrowth Imaginary Horizontal Collectivism Demasculating Men A Degrowth Reality Index