Feminist economics as better economics! Women’s

Transcript:Feminist economics as better economics! Women’s:
Feminist economics as better economics! Women’s Budget Group 30 January, 2015 Susan Himmelweit susan.himmelweit@open.ac.uk Plan for the morning Gender budgeting is the practice Feminist Economics as the theory Let’s do a bit of theory first! The main assumption of feminist economics Gender relations are an important aspect of any economy And gender is structural differences in men’s and women’s roles not chance but an integral part of how the economy runs Changes in economy as conventionally understood can affect gender relations and vice versa Gender therefore needs to be taken account in any understanding of the economy Much mainstream economics, and also much not-so-mainstream economics, is “gender blind” Should instead start by assuming that everything has a gender dimension Feminist economics is therefore not economics for women but better economics The scope of feminist economics “The economy” as traditionally understood is dependent on many activities that lie outside its scope Feminist economics is the study of all forms of “provisioning” (Julie Nelson) The survival and reproduction of people and society as a whole requires: not only paid employment but unpaid domestic work too not only production for the market but for direct use within families and communities too not only the production of material goods, but everything that people need to grow and flourish, including the provision of care The politics of feminist economics Economics that focuses on creating gender equality Traditional economics is ideological and perpetuates inequality because it normalises men’s lives and ignores much of what women do Though in practice also provides an incomplete picture of what affects men’s lives since men’s existence also depends on unpaid work, production for direct use and care and many men are involved in these activities too Even if women and feminist economics are needed to point that out! Key differences between feminist and mainstream economics Feminist economics Doesn’t just analyse market relations – other relations just as important there’s unpaid work too cannot assume people behave outside the markets just like they do within it Household is not treated the basic unit of the economy Household members can have different interests People live in a number of different households in the course of their lives Rejects notion that people have preferences that are independent and unchanging Social norms matter and they change Maximising choice doesn’t solve everything Rejects a model of work based on the production of physical things Characteristics