Labour & Work

Recovery with rights: Towards an economy that cares

The global financial crisis led to greater job loss and poverty among women than men while rising food prices and responsibility for social reproduction take excessive tolls on the livelihoods of women. Financial crises and austerity measures to combat crises undermine the human rights to work, education, health and nourishment and the capacity to provide […]

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The structural problem of misogyny

New feminism should stand together with the new proletariats against female exploitation and violence. It is time to recognise the struggle to control women’s bodies in all forms as deeply politically misogynist even if there is no easy way to mobilise and collectivise this effort writes feminist Zillah Eisenstein*.   The world seems upside down […]

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Solidarity economy initiatives from the ground up: What can we learn from the women home-based workers of Southeast Asia?

What can the most invisible and marginalized of women workers contribute to the discourse on solidarity economy based on their concrete experiences over time? This question acquires significance in the light of the combined financial, economic, and environmental crises coupled with the increasing incidence of disasters in Southeast Asia. These have led to massive job […]

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Gender and Economic Justice: Dreaming alternatives

Jayati Ghosh argues it is time for feminists to enter into the discussion of alternatives more forcefully in order to define how economic institutions and policies can ensure a gender-just economy and society. Introduction We have just lived through a phase in which the only grand idea that survived in much of the world seemed […]

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Making care visible

Posted in Labour & Work, The Role of the State on April 12th, 2013 by

Every day the majority of women spend time – and often very long hours – cooking, cleaning, and caring for children, the ill and the elderly. Yet this work is not captured in data, is not discussed in national debates, and is usually not considered when designing and implementing economic and social policies. It remains […]

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Embracing Disruptions, Responding to Uncertainties, Valuing Agency: Situating a Feminist approach to social protection

Posted in Labour & Work, The Role of the State on April 12th, 2013 by

Elizabeth Reid, Marilyn Waring, Corina Rodriguez Enriquez and Meena Shivdas examine social protection explaining what ‘social protection’ means, and the design and delivery of social protection interventions. They outline a feminist approach to social protection based on recent research on unpaid care work and applied strategies on women and children’s rights to land and other […]

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Women Long to Work in Peace

Posted in Labour & Work, Militarism, Violence & Conflict on April 9th, 2013 by

By K. S. Harikrishnan. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Mar 28 2013 (IPS) – Shaken by the brutal gang rape and murder of a young woman in the national capital New Delhi last December, the female workforce in India is calling for more concrete measures for the protection of female employees from both physical and non-physical attacks. Although the […]

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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) / Growth

Posted in Financial Flows, Labour & Work on February 5th, 2013 by

What counts, what doesn’t count, who’s doing the counting, and what are the data used for? After an introduction to the basics using ‘chapters’ from the Who’s Counting? video, this session explored the current status of national income accounting, the best questions feminists can be asking, and the best strategies to adopt. A summary prepared […]

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Rethinking Ideas of Work from a Feminist Perspective

Posted in Labour & Work on February 4th, 2013 by

This session explored how feminists have sought to reconceptualize the idea of work. It highlighted the artificial nature of the distinction between paid and unpaid work. And it discussed how the rise of global care chains has made visible some of the hidden dimensions of women’s work. A summary prepared by AWID staff of the […]

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Corporate Campaigning 101

Posted in Labour & Work, Private Sector & Corporate Power on February 4th, 2013 by

Presenters discussed how campaign organizations working to advance worker rights in global supply chains balance campaigning and engagement with corporations to pressure for change. They also shared practical lessons based on real cases in the garment industry over the last decade. Some notes on basic dos and don’ts in corporate campaigning shared in the economic […]

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Gender, Growth and Employment

Posted in Access to and control of resources, Labour & Work on November 20th, 2012 by

by Elissa Braunstein. It reviews the gendered employment impacts of the macroeconomic policy environment, with a particular focus on women’s employment. This is a summary version of the article: ‘Neoliberal Development Macroeconomics: A Consideration of its Gendered Employment Effects’, published by UNRISD, February 2012. Click here for full original version. IS GROWTH GOOD FOR WOMEN? […]

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The Power of Pleasure

Morning plenary Experiences of Resistance and Collective Organizing to Transform Economic Power showed how different grassroots movements across the globe have been challenging the current overarching system. Plenary take aways: Include men. Given from the rural organizing perspective: when women are meeting to organize themselves – men tend to step aside – we have to educate and […]

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Linking sex worker rights with feminism and development

Posted in Labour & Work on November 2nd, 2012 by

The AWID Forum will be an opportunity for women working in international development to come together to  strategize, network, celebrate, and learn from each other. A mix of activists, academics and people from programmes for women will hear presentations and engage in dialogues around this year’s theme which is the impact of economic power on women. This […]

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