Rethinking restructuring

the long version

During the past decade Canadian policy-makers have been forced to re-examine familiar forms of government and established programs in the face of growing budget deficits, economic instability, and a rapidly changing global economy. This collection of eighteen original essays presents a critical exploration of the question of political and economic restructuring from the vantage point of gender. The authors argue that the present shift in the global order is revealing the contradictory effects of what is a dual process of both gender erosion and intensification. With the convergence of male and female job experiences in polarized labour markets, gender appears to be less important in understanding the global political economy; at the same time, gender becomes more of a determining factor in the transformation of politics and markets owing to the changing role of women as workers, care givers, and consumers. The decline of the Keynesian welfare state has made claims-based politics less viable as a site of struggle for the women's movement. Not only has claims-based politics been replaced by a trend towards community and individual reliance, the women's movement itself has undergone a transformation that precludes a unitary, homogenous approach to policy and politics.