Gender equality in turbulent times: From the financial crash to polycrisis

This chapter introduces the objectives of the volume Women in turbulent times: Crises, transitions, and challenges for gender equality. The initial purpose was to take stock of how successive crises in the Global North – from the financial crisis, through the austerity turn to the Covid-19 pandemic – have shaped trends in gender equality. This introduction provides a conceptual framework and offers a sociohistorical analysis of how women's interactions with successive crises have changed, shaped by the different nature of these upheavals and women's evolving position in the economy and society. It also explains the rationale for extending the book's scope to address major long-term challenges – digitalisation and AI, the transition to net zero and persistent deficits in care provision. This move proved well-judged: by the time the volume was concluded in 2025, the world had become increasingly turbulent, marked by interconnected crises often described as polycrisis. The framework also emphasises the importance of an intersectionally-sensitive approach that recognises differences in experiences within and between genders as well as the Global North–South interconnections of these processes. The chapter concludes by outlining the volume's structure and giving an overview of how the different chapters contribute to bringing a gender perspective into polycrisis debates, issues that are developed further in the conclusions of the volume.