Banks and financial markets have encroached on our homes in ways that we are often not aware of. They have been part of our lives through mortgages and pension funds, but we are no longer using credit only to make large purchases such as a new house. Increasingly, we rely on credit to pay for basic needs such as groceries, education and health emergencies. While this trend has particularly affected the middle class, it has also become part of the lives of people who live in poverty. Social protection systems (and rights!) are becoming a market niche for private ventures. Our lives have become financialised. 

Social reproduction and the sustainability of life are at the heart of feminist struggles. Women and girls play a critical role in care provision and social reproduction. The pandemic made it clear that when education and health systems collapse, women step in to provide the labour and sustain their families. That often comes at a high cost: physical and mental stress, declining livelihoods and economic autonomy. 

The Covid-19 pandemic came into our lives in a period when public services and labour rights were already weak worldwide. Cash transfers were among the first social policy responses governments had in their toolboxes. They helped those who had been hard hit by the pandemic while also providing a boost to the global financial sector. The socio-economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic became a business opportunity. Is the future of social policy more household debt and increased financialisation of life?  This is one of the critical questions that DAWN asks in our Policy Transformations project

See the conversation with Lena Lavinas and Masaya Llavaneras Blanco. They will be accompanied by Busi Sibeko (Institute for Economic Justice, South Africa) and DAWN’s feminist economists, Professors Corina Rodríguez Enríquez and Gita Sen in what promises to be a great way to close the second cycle of DAWN Talks, our series of online conversations with exceptional feminists from the Global South.