The Handbook on Gender in World Politics serves as a compendium of cutting-edge scholarship on gender in world politics across a number of academic disciplines. It encompasses the key research areas in the field to provide readers with a gateway to further study. Featuring leading experts writing from diverse perspectives, this Handbook focuses on women as a category of analysis, masculinities, sexualities, LGBT rights and transgender identities. The topics discussed include statecraft, citizenship and the politics of belonging, international law and human rights, media and communications technologies, political economy, development, global governance and transnational visions of politics and solidarities. Students and scholars of gender and international relations and gender in world politics will find this Handbook to be an indispensible guide to the subject. It will also be of interest to practitioners in the field looking to pave the way for new policies and regulations. Contributors include: A.M. Agathangelou, N. Al-Ali, K. Alexander, D.K. Barker, A. Biricik, E. Boris, K.E. Brown, C. Brunner, D. Buss, G. Caglar, T. Carver, H. Charlesworth, C. Chinkin, A.K. Darkwah, A. den Boer, P. Drumond, A.C. Drury, R.C. Eichenberg, C. Eschle, E.A. Foster, J. Freedman, P. Griffin, C. Harrington, J. Hearn, P. Higate, C. Hoskyns, V.M. Hudson, T.A.M. Johnson, J. Joachim, R. Jacobson, J.S. Jaquette, J. Kantola, H.M. Kinsell, P. Kirby, E. Kofman, B. Maiguashca , C. Masters, L. McLeod, S. Parashar, D. Peksen, Z. Pflaeger Young, N. Pratt, E. Prugl, S.M. Rai, B.M. Read, A. Roberts, C. Rowley, J. Russel, A. Sisson Runyan, L.J. Shepherd, L. Sjoberg, N. Smith, J. Steans, M. Stern, D. Tepe-Belfrage, J. True, H.M. Turcotte, T.P. van der Weide, H. Weber, A.T. Wibben, G. Youngs, M. Zalewski, S. Zimmermann, S. Zwingel

This book examines how decisions made by the Conservative government during the COVID19 pandemic have increased economic inequality in the UK. Decades of austerity, asset-based welfare and financialization had already exacerbated social divisions in the UK prior to the pandemic. The political blueprint behind these measures combined Privatized Keynesianism and the Asset Economy. To explain, economists have highlighted that inequality derives from the fact that income from wealth increases at a faster rate than income from wages. The ensuing political assumption is that - in the face of pressures on public finances - promoting asset ownership is the best alternative to government-funded welfare schemes. What this meant, as the pandemic unfolded, was that when tough decisions about resource allocation needed to be made, the UK Treasury and the Bank of England found almost unlimited funds to rescue and protect asset-holders and middle-income homeowners, whilst reverting to a narrative of "misfortune" for the asset-less poor. This book assesses the political decisions taken by UK policymakers during 2020-21 and their consequences. In doing so, it challenges policymakers and the informed public to re-consider the morality of inequality, and to make alternative decisions to promote a more ecologically sustainable, caring, equal and prosperous society.