Date: Wednesday 18th September 2019
Time: 18:30 – 19:45
Location: Unite the Union, 128 Theobalds Road, Diskus Room, London, WC1X 8TN
Disabled women earn less (22.1%) than non-disabled men. Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority women have been disproportionately impacted by local government cuts. Unpaid carers provide £57 billion worth of social care a year. Two thirds of children in poverty live in a working family.
Mainstream economic theory has long been the preserve of white men. As a result, it fails to account for the lives and contributions of many of the people that help to keep the economy functioning. Instead of working for everyone, our current economy actually deepens social inequalities, and it is overwhelmingly women that lose out.
Feminist Economics takes a different approach. It views the economy as encompassing everything that human beings need to survive and flourish, which includes unpaid care and domestic work – the majority of which is done by women. At its heart is the principle that the economy works for people, instead of vice versa. This means that the focus of the economy, and the measure of its success, should be well being, rather than simply growing GDP.
Furthermore, feminist economics takes an intersectional approach. It recognises that gender can overlap and compound other identities such as race, disability and class to produce interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. It aims to build this intersectionality into economic policy to ensure substantive equality for all.
Join us for a lively discussion as our panelists explore the ways that an intersectional feminist approach could fundamentally reshape the economy, achieving a just society that is gender-equal across the board by putting the care and well being of people and planet at its center.
Speakers
- Chair: Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Women’s Budget Group
- Eleanor Lisney, Sisters of Frida
- Dr Zubaida Haque, Runnymede Trust
- Professor Tracey Warren, University of Nottingham