Feminist Resistance to Neoliberal Capitalism: Policy, Protests and Alternatives (Solidarity Economies)

Feminist resistance to neoliberal capitalism constitutes multifaceted movements challenging the foundational structures through which capitalism exploits and subordinates women through undervalued and invisible unpaid care work. This paper examines the theoretical foundations, policy-level interventions, feminist anti-capitalist practices and “grassroots” mobilizations towards alternatives that constitute feminist opposition to capitalist economic systems. Rooted in feminist political economy analysis, the research will demonstrate the ways capitalism structurally depends on the unpaid social reproduction performed predominantly by women, a dependency obscured by artificial distinctions of public and private domains that underpin neoliberal economic fundamentalism. Furthermore, it will highlight how feminized exploitation generates resistance particularly visible in worker-led organising, land rights struggles, and intersectional movements, challenging corporate power and disrupting both patriarchy and capitalism simultaneously. The paper identifies three primary dimensions of feminist resistance: first, theoretical critiques articulated through Marxist feminism that position women's liberation as inseparable from dismantling capitalist structures and the feminist protests that call for a restructuring of the global economy. Second, policy frameworks emerging from feminist economics scholarship that advocate progressive public investment in care infrastructure, gender budgeting, corporate accountability/resistance and the recognition of care work as a public good rather than private responsibility; and Third, grassroots alternatives including solidarity economy initiatives like the chama/stokvels/susu, mutual aid networks, agroecological practices, and communities of care and primarily led by women in the Global South contesting neoliberal development. These alternatives are an illustration of feminist economic resistance, and the analysis reveals tensions between institutional policy approaches and movement-based autonomy. By synthesizing evidence from feminist labor movements, women's rights networks, and concrete economic alternatives in Global South contexts, this paper argues that feminist resistance offers not merely gender-equality reforms within capitalism, but a fundamental reimagining of economic organization centered on life, care, and collective well-being as alternatives to profit accumulation. Keywords: feminist political economy, social reproduction, care work, solidarity economy, anti-capitalist movements, Global South, economic alternatives