A Feminist Reading of Debt

This book seeks to politicize and collectivise the issue of debt from a feminist perspective. Examining the intimate connection between gender-based violence and exploitation through debt, the authors argue that there is no universal debtor-creditor relationship. Debt cannot be separated from concrete situations because rather than homogenizing differences in gender, race and location, debt exploits these distinctions. This work seeks to expand and deepen our understandings of finance and reproduction, as well as provide useful accounts of how to resist debt from some of those most affected.The book includes five interviews with women from different organizations in Argentina and Brazil. These interviews draw a map of contemporary forms of exploitation, showing how different women are affected by debt, how they connect financial violence to other forms of gender violence, and how they resist the subjugation that debt seeks to impose on them. The book concludes with a series of manifestos coming out of the Argentine feminist movement that demonstrate this feminist reading of debt.