A Feminist Political Economy of Communication

Abstract

Abstract A feminist political economy of communication examines how resources are inequitably produced, distributed, and consumed in media between social groups and how gender—as an intersectional construct—is used to explain this inequity. While it is rooted in a critical political economy, it does more than give voices to the silenced or provide an alternative perspective to the dominant one. It aims to critique assumed gender-neutral macro-level concepts such as media economy. A number of feminist schools of thought (materialist feminism, Black feminism, technofeminism, select work from production studies) have informed this approach by theorizing gender relations vis-à-vis race and class through technologies and media work. In addition, feminists in global political economy, international relations, and economics provide frameworks to critique the assumed gender-neutral macro concepts such as international development, economies, and globalization. Feminist political economists are interested in using a gender lens to understand the evolution of capitalism. As such, they examine the relationship between gender, class, labor, value, and technologies in order to reveal the trajectory of capital. Women—as a demographic group—have been reshaped as consumers, workers, and family members in order to accommodate capital flow to overcome the overaccumulation problem inherent in capitalism. Gender—as a construct of power relations—has also been reconfigured to accommodate this flow.

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