WUNRN
Transforming Economic Power To Advance Women’s
Rights & Justice
By Susan Tolmay[1]
Broad-based mobilizations starting in the
Middle East and
The financial crisis and economic
recession that began in 2008, which is part of a broader systemic crisis of
food, energy and the environment, have underscored the failures of the current
dominant economic model.
As women’s rights and justice activists we
have a responsibility in this historic moment to seek alternatives which do not
exploit people and the planet but rather promote human rights, ensure equality,
and protect our natural resources and the environment.
Unequal economic power
Legacies of colonization, tumultuous
transitions from communism and decades of neoliberal policy prescriptions have
put public resources in the hands of the private sector, irrevocably damaged
the environment, fostered rampant militarization, eroded human rights and, with
few exceptions, allowed capitalist markets, rather than lived human experience,
to determine what has value.
The current dominant economic model, which
promotes cutting social spending and privatization of social services, sees
women taking on unpaid work and providing services that should be the remit of
the state—namely the care economy—where women become responsible for caring
for, maintaining and developing children, caring for the sick and elderly,
families and communities, with little recognition of the costs of this work.
And while women continue to perform the majority of the work they continue to
be denied their rights to own property and they lack of access to land and
resources—yet another manifestation of their unequal economic power.
Most recently, the financial crisis and
economic recession have deeply affected women in many different ways as they
struggle to meet rising costs of food, fuel, education, housing, transport,
health services and are forced to take on more and precarious work in
challenging and often exploitative conditions.
At the same time, women have long been
negotiating fractures in the system and filling the gaps left by cuts in social
spending. And there are many important experiences from which to learn.
Indigenous, peasant and rural women building food sovereignty. Grassroots women
developing strategies of resilience and empowerment in the face of both
environmental and economic disasters. Young women and girls using new
information and communication technologies in diverse and creative ways to
mobilize and bring about social change. Sex workers, migrant workers and
domestic workers redefining what it means to work and why care work should
count. Women with disabilities, trans activists and women living with HIV/AIDS
continuing to question unbridled emphasis on growth and productivity at the expense
of human dignity. And feminist economists naming and analyzing the forces
shaping and assigning value to social production and reproduction.
Making the links
Economic power cuts across every dimension
of our lives from negotiating household expenditures to allocating national
budgets. Economic power also intersects with and impacts on all women’s rights
issues and agendas from sexual and reproductive rights to education and health.
Recent years, for example, have witnessed
important changes in the nature of work in many contexts. At the same time there is a growing
recognition of the diverse ways in which women engage in economic relations and
their means of livelihood. New technologies are facilitating greater
flexibility of labour relations, at times contributing to growing
precariousness in women’s working situations. Lack of time and resources and
the demands of ‘productive’ work life have contributed to a ‘crisis of care’ in
many contexts. Shifting trends in women’s migration are also having a
significant impact on work patterns.
At the same time, in all countries of the
world there are cultural practices that hinder and in some cases prevent women’s
and entire communities’ full enjoyment of their human rights. Different forms
of gender-based violence are commonly justified in the name of culture, tradition or religion. Increased militarism and conflict also have a number of
gender-specific impacts. In militarized contexts, with paramilitary groups and
organized crime—and their scope of control and power—on the rise, feminicides
and attacks on women’s human rights defenders have become commonplace and
increasingly normalized.
The role of the state is also constantly changing. Despite the
attention that some governments have given to women’s demands for equality, the
lack of comprehensive policies (including appropriate fiscal policy to support
social spending or proper recognition of women’s contributions to national
revenue) has prevented many countries from achieving women’s full and equal
participation and economic and social autonomy.
The current dominant economic system also
has profound impacts on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and LGBTQI
rights. Times of economic crisis often lead to even greater attempts to control
sexuality and further limit access to sexual and
reproductive health services and rights, especially for women living in poverty
and other marginalized groups.
We are also currently witnessing the
impact of economic policies that promote unsustainable patterns of production
and consumption, which have resulted in the massive exploitation of our planet’s natural resources, increasing conflict and
exacerbating inequalities amongst the poorest and most vulnerable communities.
At the same time, due to gendered divisions of labour, patriarchal cultural
norms and laws and economic inequalities, women continue to be denied access to and control of resources, including land,
education, health services, credit and technologies.
Financial flows (monetary policies, financial
regulation, aid, development cooperation, foreign direct investment etc.) also
have a direct impact on women and women’s rights. Corporations and private sector actors too are often
influential players in defining global and national economic agendas. The
rising importance of transnational corporations on the global stage, and in a
broad range of critical sectors in national economies, raises many challenges
around the world.
And all of these debates take place in the
context of a changing global governance and geopolitics, triggered in part by
systemic crises. Alongside the ever-present power of private sector actors, new
powers are emerging accompanied by the weakening of the United Nations as key
multilateral body, undermining its capacity to uphold human rights and
influence global economic and development policies.
In light of this changing and complex
global context and with so many different experiences from diverse movements to
learn from, AWID hopes the 2012 AWID Forum will be a key space for deepening
our understanding of economic injustice, equipping ourselves to engage in
economic debates, and devising strategies and building alliances across
boundaries so that together we can transform economic power.