Ecofeminism and Ecological Economics, Not Liberal Feminism and Neoliberal Economics
I agree with the former England football manager Gareth Southgate says there is a crisis of masculinity, And it has to do with economics and work. The solution to what he gets wrong.
Her solutions are rooted in a fundamentally limited view of gender and economics, which fails to grasp the true depth of the problem.
three horses
First, I have three horses in this race:
1) I have a small son. I am worried about his future.
2) I am a researcher with a particular interest in the future of work and sustainability, heavily influenced by ecofeminism and working within ecological economics.
3) I work in a university. I have a material self-interest in academic studies, but also the daily experience of teaching a wide range of students.
Limitations of Neoliberalism: Training does not create jobs.
Southgate’s economic analysis draws from a very general, neoliberal, narrative that frames work as a microeconomic phenomenon. The idea that young people—and especially boys—can’t find work because they lack vocational training or work experience is fundamentally flawed.
Job provision is a macroeconomic phenomenon. An economy is the way we take resources and use them to meet human needs. Jobs are people’s roles in that process. Lack of work is not about a person’s lack of the right skills; It is about the structure of our economy.
Additional vocational experience may make Kid A more employable than Kid B. It won’t magically create a new job.
Deep Cultural Issues: What We Value
Southgate draws from a liberal idea of gender equality—a focus on equal opportunities for girls and boys. fine But this is disconnected from the structural reality of how our ideas of masculinity evolved alongside capitalism.
One of the most important insights of the ecofeminist and Marxist variants of feminism is that our economy fundamentally devalues ”feminine” work (such as care work).
As Silvia Federici powerfully argues, the relegation of “valuable” (read: money-making) industrial work to men—and the exclusion of women—was a deliberate historical act designed to tie male self-worth directly to capitalism.
The result is the fetishization of artwork, the devaluation of care.
When the arts disappear and women enter the paid workforce, the traditional cultural narrative of men breaks down. In this capitalist narrative, unemployment equates to worthlessness.
solution
The answer is not a withdrawal from academia or a return to manual vocational work for men. (I have nothing against vocational work, but it’s not a silver bullet). The solution is to take a broader view of masculinity.
The ultimate lesson from feminism is that gender roles are not fixed. There are many ways to be a man, and men are as valuable in domestic and caregiving as they are in manual labor.
We need to take this seriously in economic policy and culture. This means ceasing to rely on the private sector as the main decision maker of how resources are used. Private sector actors have an inherent bias to reduce labor – it’s expensive. Instead we need coherent industrial strategies that recognize that work is valuable whether it is profitable or not. The task is to first map people’s needs, then direct state policy to create jobs that meet those needs. It can and should include an analysis of how much care works – for people or for nature.
Here are the main co-benefits. Ecological economics shows how a structural shift toward care-based, labor-intensive work — coupled with shorter work hours — can more evenly distribute meaningful work while driving the transition to a truly sustainable economy.
Southgate is sparking an important debate with his interviews and his film. But if we are to solve the crisis, we need to stop treating structural economic failure as a deficit of individual skills. And we need to make connections between deep-seated notions of what masculinity is, how it relates to the destructive practices of capitalism, and combine these with a coherent state strategy for a more sustainable economy.
Previously published substack
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