Conference Agenda

Despite widespread calls by feminist networks and their allies in wider civil society for a feminist just transition, the rhetoric of ‘building back better’ deployed by many governments and international financial institutions after the devastation of Covid-19 has so far rung hollow. Rather, the reversals to gender equality gains caused by the pandemic - as women lost livelihoods, took on increased unpaid care burdens, endured intensified levels of gender-based violence, among others - are being exacerbated by surges in food and energy costs, devastating impacts of climate change, and a debt and austerity crisis. These impacts reverberate along intersecting lines of gender, race, class, caste, geographical location, migrant status and other dimensions of structural oppression, with black and brown women from the Majority World impacted most. Wealth inequalities have continued to soar, with power increasingly concentrated in the hands of multinational companies and elites. Such a state of affairs underscores the woeful shortcomings of mainstream macroeconomic institutions and approaches for redistributing resources and enabling governments to meet their commitments to human rights and gender equality. Within this challenging context, feminist networks and scholars continue to urgently demand a shift to economies that prioritise care, human rights and wellbeing of people and the environment, over the blind pursuit of GDP and economic growth. As well as recognising, valuing and reorganising the fundamental role of social reproduction, such a shift would mean redressing the systems of oppression rooted in colonialism, racism, patriarchy and queerphobia that are embedded in our economic structures, systems and institutions. Decent work, transformative care policies, tax justice and climate justice are also key decolonial feminist demands within this agenda. This event will feature speakers from academia and the feminist economic justice movement who will share examples of research, strategies, and alternative policy pathways for transitioning towards feminist economies at national, regional and global level, thereby creating space for mutual learning, strategising and movement building. The event will explore key challenges and opportunities in this regard, including at institutional and conceptual levels, and ask questions around the political economy of trying to shift towards feminist wellbeing economies in contexts of entrenched power.

This event will be linked to the event on the 6th of July at 11:10am - 1:00pm: ‘Moving Beyond GDP: Engaging and Consensus-Building on Feminist, Decolonial and Wellbeing Alternatives and Pathways.’