The feminist vision of the economics of the future

The economic theory describes the relationships within economy, focusing on people involved in the production (and reproduction) process. Despite the existence of various forms of these processes’ coordination, the dominant form with a particular place in economic considerations is the monetary exchange on the market. Remaining forms – redistribution made by the state and the gift related to reciprocity – are treated as supplementary to the former. This also impacts the hierarchy of activities in which those related to the market, such as paid work, are given more attention than those performed without pay, such as care work. Some authors directly mention lack of respect for people performing care work. Relationships shaped under the capitalist system in which money constitutes a unit of value overlap with relationships between men and women. There is a universal division in which women are charged with performing unpaid work for the household, and men with paid work. The report on social development prepared by UNDP in 1995, devoted entirely to the gender relationships indicates that women perform 53% of all global work, while men only 47%. And yet 75% of work performed by men is paid, compared to only 33% of work performed by women.

The ratios described above form an image of undervalued women’s work which is nevertheless the foundation of a system that enables the reproduction of the workforce. The significance of this work for the survival of society became clearly visible in the recent months when during the social distancing all family activities moved indoors. The amount of unpaid work skyrocketed and the question arose – who does this work? Were the shifts which we witnessed only short-term and will the gender division of work come back to its previous shape after the COVID-19-related danger passes? What is the vision of the division of work between women and men and the meaning assigned to unpaid work, and finally, whether and how these relationships will change in future?

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We decided to move the meeting online. Join us on the Zoom platform.

The seminar will be streamed on our Facebook channel, as well as recorded and archived on YouTube channel. To protect your image, we ask you to keep your cameras and microphones off during the entire event. But we do encourage you to join the discussion and send us questions on the chat. The moderator Przemysław Wielgosz will ask them on your behalf.

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