The state and gender relations in international political economy: A state-theoretical approach to varieties of capitalism in crisis

Abstract

This article develops a gendered state-theoretical materialist framework to show how capitalism as an economic system and the nation-state reproduce gendered hierarchies on multiple levels. With a focus on the symbolic masculine cultural order and its hegemonic political rationality of governing, the current economic crisis and its effects on gender regimes is discussed more specifically. In a case study on a new economic governance form called ‘Sixpack’ within the European Union, the effects of these policies and their symbolic meanings are highlighted. The article therefore challenges the varieties of capitalism literature on gender, arguing that a broader framework of analysis is necessary to capture the intersectional dimensions of domination in capitalism for different subject positions.