The future of gender equality in turbulent times: Why we need a gender lens on polycrisis

This concluding chapter synthesises the analytical and empirical insights of the volume Women in turbulent times. Crises, transitions and challenges for gender equality to advance a gendered perspective on polycrisis – largely absent from mainstream debates. The review highlights how successive crises – financial, health-related, geopolitical – interact with chronic pressures such as digitalisation, the urgency to move to a net-zero economy and persistent care deficits to produce layered inequalities. Three core insights emerge: first, polycrisis frameworks must recognise structural tensions between production and social reproduction as a key source of systemic instability. Second, intersectional analysis is essential to capture how gendered vulnerabilities are shaped by class, migration and North–South divides amid turbulence. Third, digital and green transitions carry risks and opportunities to reshape employment and care systems in ways that may either advance or undermine gender equality. A key concern is the challenges that these transformations pose to the survival of the standard employment relationship as a pillar of social reproduction in the Global North. Against a backdrop of political backlash and fiscal retrenchment, the chapter calls for renewed commitment to gender mainstreaming and structural transformation of care systems to build resilience and equity in an era of turbulence. Ultimately, the future of progress may hinge on whether powerful men succeed in putting women's aspirations towards gender equality back in the bottle.