'Global' financial crisis, earnings inequalities and gender: towards a more sustainable model of development

The economic crisis of 2007-8 was sparked primarily by mismanagement of capital markets through speculation and excessive risk taking by very highly paid men (predominantly) in the financial centres of the western world, but the underlying causes are deeply rooted in the neo-liberal model of global development itself. Neo-liberalism is associated with unsustainable increases in earnings inequalities and a related imbalance between productivity and wages resulting in a fall in the share of output accruing to labour. These inequalities formed a key element in generating the crisis. This paper explores the processes leading to and explanations for rising earnings inequality and enduring gender inequality theoretically, and with reference to selected illustrations. As the processes generating current inequalities are so profound and embedded, it is necessary to move beyond marginal adjustments to the current neo-liberal orthodoxy and specify alterative models of development in order to secure economic and social sustainability as well as socially just societies.