Gender and money, the gender of money and the money of gender
Call for paper
International Interdisciplinary Conference
University of South Brittany March 12-13, 2026
HCTI and TEMOS Laboratories
Gender and money, the gender of money and the money of gender
For several decades now, we have seen a proliferation of measures to reduce inequalities between men and women. These legal and political initiatives generally aim to empower women economically in order to remedy a situation of persistent inferiority that is particularly evident in the financial dimension of women's wealth. Historically, emancipation through money has followed an irregular trajectory, with points of rupture, transition, and continuity. However, the ancient concept of imbecillitas sexus has remained a constant over time, particularly after its rediscovery in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. It “constitutes the dogmatic matrix of family law under the Ancien Régime: by nature, women are weak, like children or madmen, so they must be protected and chaperoned by a man, their father or husband, who is responsible for running the household and managing the family's assets” (« constitue la matrice dogmatique du droit de la famille sous l’Ancien Régime : par nature, la femme est faible, à l’image de l’enfant ou du fou, si bien qu’elle doit être protégée, chaperonnée par un homme, son père ou son mari, qui assure la direction du foyer et la gestion des biens du ménage » ) (LAURENT-BONNE, 2025, p. 30). This situation reduced women's control over their assets. Women generally lost the ability to freely dispose of and build up their own financial wealth. However, the money they may receive in one way or another quickly becomes a major issue in the development of a household or economic activity for the benefit of men through matrimonial regimes, inheritance, or commercial companies. This trend did not disappear in individual and collective practices after the Ancien Régime. However, the Civil Code of 1804 broke with a more liberal revolutionary aspiration in favor of a masculine rigorism that would only relax under the weight of economic necessities, world conflicts, and finally feminist movements. While French women were given the right to open a bank account in 1965, it was not until 1985 that this became the case in Switzerland. Despite these measures and the growing participation of women in the labor market, the findings of economists are clear. In France, wealth inequality between women and men increased from 9% to 16% between 1998 and 2015 (RADICA 2025, p. 18). Above all, these inequalities extend widely across the acquisition, valuation, and taxation of wealth.
Money, a lever for emancipation, still appears in many ways to be a tool of domination. However, it is necessary to define what is meant by the term. Its polysemy has already been studied by several disciplines, starting with sociology and anthropology. We must distinguish between money as a social, political, and moral phenomenon and currency, a more limited concept that refers to money as an instrument of exchange in economics. Thus, money must be understood in its materiality, but it takes on its full meaning through the prism of the social context, as well as emotions, values, customs, beliefs, the collective imagination and, more generally, the symbolic order that underlies them.
While the economic relationship between men and women is a key starting point for examining the relationship between gender and money, the issue of gender broadens the scope of the question. Judith Butler, in Gender Trouble (1990), demonstrates “the foundational categories of sex, gender, and desire as effects of a specific formation of power” (xxix). It is a matter of “the political stakes in designating as an origin and cause those identity categories that are in fact the effects of institutions, practices, discourses with multiple and diffuse points of origin” (xxix). Money, like gender, can therefore be studied as political constructs that reflect the society from which they originate, taking on varying meanings and representations depending on the geographical areas studied.
Communication themes:
Several communication themes will be prioritized, without being exclusive. Other questions or issues may be proposed.
We will examine the issue of money through the lens of gender on several scales and within different spheres, from intimate relationships with money and its use to the state level, where, for example, there is a clear need to implement gender-sensitive public policies (LAZARUS, 2021). This approach may lead us to question the ambiguities of possible emancipation through money and the tensions it creates with social, moral, or legal norms. Beyond the legal transformations framing the relationship between gender and money, the study of strategies for circumventing the law and informal and illegal practices relating to money, its uses and its circulation, allows us to understand the scope for action, and even empowerment, that they make possible (GUÉRIN et al., 2013), particularly, but not exclusively, in the private sphere.
The gendered distribution of money is part of this focus through issues of taxation, social security, benefits, and inheritance. The way in which money is distributed, allocated, and transferred provides fertile ground for analyzing the gendered dimension of economic relations within couples (budgets), families (inheritance practices), and public policy (redistribution), as well as strongly gendered stereotypes, such as the image of the “breadwinner” “ (GERSON 1993) or that of the ”welfare queen," the latter stereotype used to justify and normalize the oppression of black women (COLLINS 1990).
The question of the legality and illegality of money and the relationship between financial corruption and gender will be examined. It should be noted that illegal practices related to money are sexualized: the tempting figure of the “gold digger,” that of counterfeiters whose production is called “queer money”, but also usury, which, like counterfeiting, can be linked to homosexuality (FISHER 1999, GIDE 1921). In the 19th century, female confidence artists in the United States saw their sexuality and their quest for fortune closely linked (HALTTUNEN, 1982, GAMBER, 2017). Major financial scandals such as the Ponzi scheme set up by Bernie Madoff will also provide an opportunity to study the relationship between masculinity, money, and corruption.
The question of emancipation through money in a neoliberal society. Long before Betty Friedan publicly proclaimed that the solution to female malaise lay in employment in the capitalist sphere in The Feminine Mystique (1963), Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote in Women and Economics (1898) that women needed to gain economic independence by working outside the home. The only way to separate the sexual relationship from the economic relationship within the home was to work outside it. While economic emancipation in a capitalist society and by capitalist means is seen as the first step toward gender equality, questions were raised about the relevance of using the master's tools to destroy the master's house, according to Audre Lorde's image (1984). We will therefore question post-feminist discourse as a neoliberal discourse in its form, where the pursuit of financial fortune contributes to the neoliberal society from which it claims to extract itself (TASKER AND NEGRA, 2007), particularly in its representations in popular culture: music, film, television series, etc.
RELEVANT DISCIPLINES: History, Law, American Studies, Literature, Spanish Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, etc.
Proposals for papers, in French or English, should be between 300 and 500 words in length and should outline the subject of the paper, specifying the theme under which it will be presented. They should include the surname, first name, institutional affiliation, and email address of the presenter(s), as well as some biographical and bibliographical information. Proposals must be submitted by November 14, 2025. A preliminary acceptance notice will be sent in early December 2025.
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Conference organization
Location and date:
The conference will be held over two days in Lorient, at the University of South Brittany, on March 12 and 13, 2026. It will be organized into sessions of 30-minute presentations.
The conference proceedings will be published shortly thereafter in an issue of a multidisciplinary journal.
The exact date for submitting papers will be communicated to you after the conference, sometime in the spring of 2026.
The University of South Brittany will cover one night's hotel accommodation and meals. Financial considerations should not be a barrier for doctoral students.
Organizers:
Véronique Mehl, Isabelle Durand, Victor Le Breton-Blon, Claire Huet, Marion Olharan Lagan