The banking crisis that erupted in 2007 triggered a massive drop in investment, output and employment not only in Europe and the United States, which were at the epicentre of the crisis, but in other parts of the world as well. While much of the response by policy makers and governments has focused on bailing out the financial sector (‘Wall Street’) and, to a lesser extent, dealing with its implications for economic output and jobs (‘Main Street‘), far less attention has been given to its
impact on people’s well-being, including their ability to care for themselves, their families and communities: the ‘invisible economy’ of care and social reproduction.
This paper suggests that these three spheres—finance, production and unpaid care and social reproduction— are in fact interconnected and overlapping (Elson 2010). One of the advantages of a feminist analysis is to draw attention to their interconnections and to make visible what is often left out of mainstream accounts.
