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INPRIMATU
Feminism reinvents the economy
Mikel Zurbano 2023ko abenduaren 06a

The general feminist strike of November 30 allows us to reflect on the new look and steps taken from the gender perspective in the economy. While the conventional economy only seeks profit, the gender perspective focuses its attention on the life of society and the planet, upsetting the funds of the old economy.

Research and gender studies have been very collateral in academia, especially in the economy, in which orthodoxy has recently had a strong presence. In any case, a new wind hits the academy that breaks the forces and efforts of women. And a clear example of this is that this year's economy has been awarded the Nobel Prize by gender researcher Claudia Goldin. Although this award has prioritized liberal orthodoxy, it has had to submit to the impulse of gender studies.

Claudia Goldin’s main effort has been reflected in the analysis of the theoretical and practical bases for bridging the gender gap. It has provided evidence of a gender gap in the field of labour market research and has been crucial for the implementation of effective public policy measures. Among other things, with data from 200 years, he conducted a study of the gender gap in the United States and brought down many myths of the labor market. It belies, for example, the relationship between economic growth and the possible decline in the gender gap. On the contrary, it concluded that if there has been an improvement in the gender gap for two centuries, it is due to improved education and the ease of use of contraceptives.

But Goldin went further and underlined the need for cultural change. It says that business culture is based on the promotion of those who have spent more hours in the workplace. And he says that this lack of flexibility directly affects women's decisions about their working lives.

Society has a historical debt to women for the care work performed by them, and usually unpaid.

However, beyond its contribution to equality, the feminist economy is an alternative of great clarity as it challenges the principles and objectives of the conventional economy. The welfare and good life of society is what puts gender economies at the centre and excludes the measure of Gross Domestic Product and its mercantilist logic. Care, domestic work, help, support for people... tasks outside the market are fundamental to life, especially women and the official economy do not take them into account. That is why the feminist economy says that these jobs must also be counted and the contribution of women who are out of the market taken into account.

Unpaid work produced and exchanged as domestic and non-commercial service is huge and invisible. Therefore, if we want to better understand how economic relations and inequalities between women and men are constructed, a new paradigm is needed. In this sense, the feminist paradigm recomposes the very objective of the economy, escapes the idea of maximizing benefits and puts equality, well-being and care at the centre.

Every society needs and offers care, but the key lies in the attention we provide from a community perspective to care and to those who provide these services. Society has a historical debt to women for the care work performed by them, and in most cases unpaid. An important step in historical repair is to fill the violet streets on November 30.