Gendered Mobilizations against Austerity in Ireland

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the economic and social crisis in shaping political agency in women's and feminist organizations in the context of Irish austerity. Examining forms of political agency exercised by women in a range of gendered mobilizations, we isolate examples of defensive agency that seek to protect women's interests from fiscal retrenchment. Despite the damage to gender infrastructure we argue that feminist agency remains crucial to realizing gender equality in public and private decision making. Evidence suggests that in the Irish context, despite deep austerity, gendered forms of mobilization are resisting retrenchment but are doing so in an absence of intersectional solidarities.