Book Review: Leah Bassel and Akwugo Emejulu, Minority Women and Austerity: Survival and Resistance in France and Britain
| Author | Silke Roth |
| Published date | 01 August 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929918810289 |
| Date | 01 August 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
book-review2019
Commissioned Book Review
Political Studies Review
2019, Vol. 17(3) NP13 –NP14
Commissioned Book Review
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Minority Women and Austerity: Survival
cally exclude minority women. They illustrate
and Resistance in France and Britain by Leah
this with the debate around the adoption of a
Bassel and Akwugo Emejulu. Bristol: Policy
law banning headscarves in France 2004 and
Press, 2017. 168pp., £75.00 (h/b), £24.99 (p/b),
the racialisation of sexual violence after sexual
ISBN 978144732134.
assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve in
2015. They argue that the white socialist Left
Austerity measures such as public sector cuts
and the populist left practice ‘exclusionary uni-
which eliminate jobs and services hit minority
versality’ through neglecting race, gender and
women hardest. In this timely book, Leah
other aspects of privilege and discrimination
Bassel and Akwugo Emejulu argue that the
and instead focusing solely on class.
activism of minority women is overlooked as
The comparison of France, England and
long as it is approached from the perspective of
Scotland shows how different citizenship
mainstream political participation. Their criti-
regimes and approaches to austerity affect and
cal intervention thus widens the understanding
are responded to by minority women. In con-
of political participation and breaks with domi-
trast to France, England and Scotland promote
nant epistemological frameworks that cast
the idea of multicultural citizenship while the
minority women as victims. The authors
republican citizenship model in France down-
acknowledge the expertise of minority women
plays race, ethnicity and religion promoting
regarding their own lives, and they analyse
‘difference blindness’ (p. 2) which makes it
how different national contexts shape minority
difficult if not impossible to make claims ...
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