Free markets and state control: a feminist challenge to Davos Man and Big Brother

Abstract

In this article, a sociologist and a criminologist argue that recent analysis from feminist men's studies points to ways to challenge the masculine institutions involved in global economic restructuring and the global war on terrorism. The expansion of state control - in the name of security and fighting terrorism - represents a new aspect of globalisation, which, in the US, carries significant consequences in terms of less freedom, more incarceration and tremendous costs. As with economic restructuring, women will bear much of this burden. However, the forms of masculinity dominant in global social institutions are subject to challenge. This gives feminists opportunities to transform existing relations of social inequality in states and markets.