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Crises of Social Reproduction among Women of Color: The State and Local Politics of Inequality within Neoliberal Capitalism

Julisa McCoy

Jessica Moronez

Evelyn Pruneda

Ellen Reese

The Politics of Inequality

ISBN: 978-1-83909-363-0, eISBN: 978-1-83909-362-3

Publication date: 19 July 2021

Abstract

Communities are critical sites for studying the politics of inequality within neoliberal capitalism. We illustrate this by providing regional case studies of the enactments and outcomes of three types of neoliberal policies in the United States: (1) cutbacks in family planning policies, (2) municipal underbounding and failures to provide public infrastructure within unincorporated communities, and (3) “tough on crime” policies leading to mass incarceration. Building on insights from intersectional feminist theory and using evidence from in-depth interviews from three Southwestern communities, we argue that neoliberal capitalism is compounding intersecting inequalities affecting women of color. In particular, we claim that neoliberal policies at the local and state levels are compromising the reproductive autonomy and public health of women of color and creating new challenges for their family care work.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

Research for this article was supported by the National Science Foundation – Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the University of California Consortium on Social Science and Law Summer Fellowship Program, the UCLA Beyond the Bars Fellowship, and a research grant from UC Mexus. We are very grateful to all of our interviewees for generously sharing their stories and insights with us. We also thank Gabriela Aguilar, Alejandra Alfaro, Viviana Flores, Andrea Mendez, and Mirella Deniz-Zaragoza for assistance in interview transcription. Finally, we thank our anonymous reviewers and the editors for their feedback on earlier drafts of this article.

Citation

McCoy, J., Moronez, J., Pruneda, E. and Reese, E. (2021), "Crises of Social Reproduction among Women of Color: The State and Local Politics of Inequality within Neoliberal Capitalism", Pettinicchio, D. (Ed.) The Politics of Inequality (Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 28), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 115-134. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0895-993520210000028006

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited