3 results
Foreword
- James Heintz, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
-
- Book:
- The Economy's Other Half
- Published by:
- Agenda Publishing
- Published online:
- 09 August 2023
- Print publication:
- 21 December 2018, pp vii-x
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The new Gendered Economy series of short books critically examines our understanding of the economy through the lens of gender. It showcases how economic relationships, actions and institutions are directly affected by gender norms and challenges many of the tenets that underpin both the mainstream and heterodox interpretation of how economies function. James Heinz’s book The Economy’s Other Half underscores this in its aim to challenge “the status quo of the current practice of macroeconomics by bringing gender into the way we understand how the economy works”.
On the whole, neither mainstream nor heterodox macroeconomics, both in terms of theory development or policy formulation, pays attention to the role of gender in the economy and the implications of macro-level policies for gender equality. This book challenges that neglect. Starting from the premise that economies are shaped by gender relations and that macroeconomic policy is likely to affect every aspect of women’s and men’s economic lives, the book focuses on three specific areas of inquiry: firstly, how and why macroeconomic policies affect women and men differently, considering both fiscal policy (government spending, taxation and borrowing) and monetary policy (interventions that affect the money supply, interest rates and exchange rates); secondly, why the identification and measurement of the variables that form the basis of macroeconomics are incomplete and lead to poor policy choices; and thirdly, how investments in human beings, including unpaid and non-market care, affect the economy’s prospects, and people’s well-being, across generations.
Fiscal and monetary policies have large, broad-based effects on the economy influencing the level of demand, prices, employment, income distribution and productivity. Such policies, which fundamentally influence the productive capacity of the economy, are almost always designed and implemented without any specific reference to gender. It is usually presumed that macroeconomic formulation and policy advice is gender neutral because it does not explicitly target women and men. As this book shows, the difficulty with this conceptualization is that macroeconomic policies interact with structural features of the economy to produce distinct outcomes for women and men. Heintz demonstrates through detailed non-technical discussion of clear everyday examples, that macroeconomic policies are gender blind rather than gender neutral and, as such, raise the possibility of replicating and reinforcing existing inequalities between women and men.
Foreword
- Monica O'Connor, University College Dublin
-
- Book:
- The Sex Economy
- Published by:
- Agenda Publishing
- Published online:
- 16 August 2023
- Print publication:
- 30 November 2018, pp vii-viii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The Gendered Economy is a new path-breaking series of short books which critically examine our understanding of the economy through the lens of gender and expose the androcentric biases within mainstream and heterodox economic analysis.
This book contributes to the series by providing a trenchant critique of the framing of prostitution as a form of labour, similar to other forms of service/care work, which can or should be regulated within a labour rights framework. It adds to the contributions feminist economists have made to critiquing the market economy and the commodification of more and more aspects of life. This book is timely given international policy developments around legalizing and regulating “sex work”. It is also timely given that the intersection of globalization, poverty and migration has resulted in an exponential rise in the number of migrant women within low status gendered occupations in post-industrial economies where the possibilities for choice and agency are highly constrained.
The Sex Economy shows not only how economic relationships, actions and institutions are directly affected by gender norms but also challenges many of the tenets that underpin the interpretation of how economies function. The commercial sex trade is highly gendered: demand is almost exclusively male, and supply is made up predominantly of women plus a small minority of young men and Trans people. The discourse surrounding prostitution has increasingly become one of market transactions, which are discussed both as a legitimate economic business and as employment comparable to other forms of low-paid work. So much so, that in some countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, it has been regulated within a labour-rights framework. Presenting primary data, extensive comparative reviews of policy approaches and the evidence emerging from countries where the state has sought to legalize and regulate sex work like any other sector of the economy, this book argues that there is an urgent need to interrogate the implications of this approach.
More fundamentally, this book grapples with questions asked by both economists and philosophers regarding the limits of markets.
Foreword
- Jane Pillinger, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Nora Wintour
-
- Book:
- Collective Bargaining and Gender Equality
- Published by:
- Agenda Publishing
- Published online:
- 09 August 2023
- Print publication:
- 30 November 2018, pp xv-xvi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The Gendered Economy is a new path-breaking series of short books which critically examine our understanding of the economy through the lens of gender and expose the androcentric biases within mainstream and heterodox economic analysis.
This book contributes to the series by looking how trade unions and other membership-based workers’ organizations can support gender equality, drawing on examples from across the world. This issue is missing from most of the global reports on women’s economic empowerment, from organizations like the World Bank and the IMF, which celebrate individual entrepreneurship but ignore collective action. As more women take up paid employment, they are joining trade unions or other membership-based organizations in growing numbers, so that in some countries women now outnumber men in trade unions. But this book is clear-eyed about the challenges: collective agreements often cover only male dominated industries and the public sector, and usually have not included sub-contracted workers; trade unions have often been slow to take up gender equality issues; and the majority of women in employment in many countries are in the informal economy where organizing is much more difficult.
Nevertheless, as this book shows, change is happening. Collective bargaining agendas have been broadened to address issues such as workplace discrimination, equal pay for work of equal value, the care responsibilities of workers, and the impact of domestic violence in the workplace. Women are increasingly participating in the leadership of some trade unions.
This book does not only look at traditional trade union organizing. It also looks at new ways of organizing workers in informal employment, and the ways in which trade unions can support this in networks developed with NGOs, and in bargaining forums in which trade unions participate alongside informal workers’ organizations. Global Framework Agreements have established new bargaining frameworks at transnational level, and some have sought to cover sub-contracted workers throughout the supply chain. Trade unions have participated in multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Ethical Trading Initiative. Some trade unions have also begun to engage with the communities who use the services they produce. For example, teachers’ unions have engaged with parents in campaigns for good quality public education; while health care unions have focused on the quality of patient care.