WUNRN
WIDE
is a European feminist network of women´s organisations, development NGOs,
gender specialists and women´s rights activists. WIDE monitors and influences
international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist
perspective.
WIDE Annual Conference 2009 ´Care Economy and Care Crisis´
18-20 June 2009, Basel, Switzerland
Care is a universal feature among all human beings, but the social organisation of care changes over place and time. The way care is organised in the society is decisive for gender relations and gender equality. In our modern societies, care work paid and unpaid is a practice and a reality for many women all around the world. However, it is characterised by enormous asymmetries between women and men, as a result of which the gendered division of labour and valuation of work have been central motives for critical feminist theory and feminist struggles since the 1970s. The care economy, even if a quantitatively predominant sector of economy, remains "the outlying other" of mainstream economics, and the dominant approaches of social and development policies misconceive its relevance.
In the context of the global financial crisis, growing poverty, food crises, climate change and HIV/AIDS, a care crisis is becoming more and more evident. The solutions to tackle the crisis proposed by the political, economical and humanitarian mainstream public austerity policies, monetisation of care and commercialisation of essential public services, (re-)privatisation of care into households while simultaneously forcing market access for women are challenging for feminists in many ways. By assuming that women are by nature dedicated to care, the mainstream is (re)constructing care work as women´s work. At the same time, alternative development concepts and economic structures such as the care- and provision-driven economy in which women have always been key actors are further marginalised. Moreover, global and local care regimes are establishing new unequal divisions of labour between women of different classes and origins.
What are the links between care crises, proposed remedies and gender inequalities? What kind of solutions do we have as feminists to challenge the intersectional structures of power, the binary gender order and the old and newly reshaped inequalities, and to promote alternative concepts of work, time, benefit, livelihood and well-being?
Care and unpaid work have been important topics for the new feminist movement for a long time. The way to discuss them, however, has changed. The WIDE Annual Conference 2009 will provide space for discussing the issues from different perspectives North, East and South and for learning more about paid and unpaid care work and about the current debates related to care, work, workers and working conditions. It will try to link the care economy to the other aspects of the economy, particularly to the global financial crisis and to the ongoing debates on development and welfare in which gender equality and social justice are at stake. The conference will also encourage debate on questions, lost in the process of gender equality mainstreaming, that we should pick up again.
About the programme
The aim of the first day of the conference is to learn more about the care workers, their working conditions and the institutional contexts in which care work is done, to understand the different dimensions and dynamics of the care economy, to specify and contextualise the actual care crisis and to explore and develop feminist approaches and practices. The UNRISD study on ´Political and Social Economy of Care´ serves as a source and basis for discussion.
The second day of the conference highlights three parallel thematic areas of care, and tracks different approaches to the care debates, which are important in strategising and designing WIDE´s future policies. The purpose of the second day is also to discuss and deepen feminist understandings, to plan actions and develop strategies. The third day of the conference will look at and develop strategies to address the care crisis as it is linked with other crises, such as the current global financial crisis.
The conference will be structured around plenary sessions, parallel sessions and workshops. And as part of the social activities there will be a cultural evening and a feminist walk through Basel.
To register and for more information
Information about how to register will be available soon. To pre-register or for more information, write to Patricia Meyer: patricia.meyer[at]cfd-ch.org; 0041-3130005060
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