Peven The day of an engineer has an economic value, but not that of a woman who takes care of the elderly mother? Why is the economy counting more than people and more than human rights? And then, why has the world never had many resources and as much technology as now, yet the dominant feelings are dissatisfaction, stress, precariousness and people feel the social system and trust in the future vanish? These are questions like this, connected with the equity, the quality of the relationships and the existence of everyone to move the feminist economy, an alternative approach to the traditional economy which is now at the center of an expanding interest.
Feminist economy, putting the cure in the center is not just a good dream
“At the base of the feminist economy there is the concept of reproduction. That is, all the paid and unpaid activities necessary to maintain or increase the well -being of people. In this book I define them widely. They include everything from primary school to comfort a friend who has just been left by his girlfriend. They include Any activity in which at least two people create something that contributes to making one, or both, become healthier, more fit, happier and more living»Note Emma Holten, Danish activist, 34 years old, author of the essay translated into many countries Deficit. Because the feminist economy will change the worldpublished in Italy by La Tartaruga, in which he analyzes The way the models developed by the economy have ended up influencing The way we look at humanity and society.
The care work is not only used for sick, elderly and children
«We often talk about the care work as of Something that only serves as sick, elderly people, people with disabilities and children»The author continues. «This is not the case that one thinks in the perspective of the feminist economy where it is seen as a constant in everyone’s life. It is a prerequisite for the existence of all of us. Even when we are healthy and apparently able to look after ourselves. No human being can survive without others, sooner or later, They are prompt against him and derive him from par, from person with a value. Nobody exists without the attention of others. And therefore the care work is what makes any other job possible. This is what we believe in the feminist economy, and will prove to be a very radical economic affirmation».
Think, Emma Holten, that the problem of our time is the fact that politics pursues only measurable goals. See economic growth, increase in productivity or that of consumption. And therefore neglect or sacrifices dimensions that are apparently invalidly like mutual assistancein fact, school, human relationships, social justice, happiness, even.
The exploitation of the work done (free) by women
In such a schematic and polarized context where it is the law that only the market creates wealth, It becomes logical that the work done for free in a disproportionate way by women is exploited. That is, the care of children, that of the elderly, the management of the house and family. And at the same time we devalue it to perceive it as a sort of deficit for the country because it doesn’t bring direct money in the state coffers.
All this is a short paradoxical circuit, since Today’s economic system stands up because it is guaranteed precisely by the work that is done inside the houses. But it is nothing more than the consequence – comments Emma Holten – of an economy that reduces value to money and profit.
Another way of understanding the world
Therefore, to the current economic model, the feminist economy opposes the idea of A world that focuses on the cureunderstood not only as concrete assistance to people, but as a concern and widespread protection. «Investing in care is also an absolute contingent necessity. In 2030 in Italy there will be 5 million elderly people Not self -sufficient, in addition to millions of other only people, individuals and parents often with a single child. The commitment to the well -being of others is the only possible futureas the Covid experience showed us, during which it emerged that we all need others ».
Marcella Corsi, professor of political economy, coordinator of Minerva, laboratory on diversity and inequalities of gender At the University of Rome La Sapienza. A few days ago he has also been president ofto International Association for Feminist Economicsan international association that has 800 members including professionals, academic, researchers and activists in 90 countries around the world.
Feminist economy, another way of understanding the world
«The feminist economy is not a branch of the political economy. It is precisely another way of understanding the world! It is a overturning the concept of economyfrom market relationship to relationship between human beings also based on non -market elements ». Corsi has translated into Italian a collection of essays just released on the topic. It is titled Feminist economy. Proposals, practices and challenges (publisher Alegre), edited by Cristina Carrasco Bengoa and Carme Díaz Corral, is an extremely pragmatic book, with a flowing reading and easily understandable even by non -economists.
“If this growing, also editorial attention is surprised on the feminist economy? Not at all. People realized that not everything can have a pricewhich not everything can be the effect of an exchange mediated by the market. This recent awareness has created new collective reflection spaces on what the economy can be, precisely, out of the market “adds Marcella Corsi.
The assault on the economy of feminism
For Silvia Federici, a professor that emerged from political philosophy and international studies at the New College of Hofstra University, in New York State, The feminist economy today is strong because feminism is strong. «Feminism has given women so much courage, so much confidence in their experience and justice of their struggle, that they lead them to try the assault on the sky. The assault on the economy, which is, among all the disciplines, the closest to the power structures that dominate our society “comments, in an interesting chapter of the essay by his signature.
But it’s not a war of the sexes
The feminist economy is ambitious, because it aims to modify the dominant economic paradigm in a radical way. If his first word mantra is relational assets, in antagonism to the goods treated by the market, the second is diversity. “The dominant economy Forces us to think that all economic subjects – that is, anyone of us – are the same. It is an economy structured on the unique theoretical model of homo oeconomicuswho is a man, in fact, white, Anglo -Saxon, wealthy, heterosexual and healthy, yet it applies to representation of the entire humanity “says Marcella Corsi.
“Naturally The alternative is not the Femina Oeconomicawhich would be a model equally incorrect. This is not the war between the sexes. The alternative is an economy that, first of all, adapts to the needs of people in their diversity. And especially in this historical moment in which the single thought is trying to fight diversity in many places in the world, this is undoubtedly revolutionary ».
The market is not the enemy
Is the feminist economy a theoretical model for a world still to be drawn? Today its principles are made in different concrete practices, especially in the south of the world. “I’m talking about mutualistic practices, cooperative economy and circular economy that live within the market. Therefore, they do not necessarily consider the market as an enemy, but they bend it to the needs of the relationship between humans “continues Corsi.
«I think of many service cooperatives – many of which, however, with very high female employment – who build virtuous experiences of relationship between employer and workers, between the territory and institutions. That are carriers of more human working conditionswho operate to make people’s lives actually better. In Italy, it comes to mind, one for all, the philosophy of the New Generation Social Cooperative Open Group of Bologna, which is dedicated to the development of the territory. In Europe, I think of La Ciba in Barcelona. It is a former abandoned factory that has been renovated with public funds and returned to the territory expressly as a space of applied feminist economy “.
Women still don’t really count
The feminist economy also aims to redefine the very concept of value, economic progress and GDP, starting from what the traditional economy excludes, or the care work. “The care work, by virtue of its necessity, is taken for granted And it remains invisible and rarely quantified. It could be summarized by saying that, despite the many courageous efforts, women do not really count ». The economists Sara Cantillon, Odille Mackett and Sara Stevano, pointed out it, authors of another and very articulated volume of very recent publication. Feminist political economy. A global perspectivecurated in the Italian edition by the same courses and published by the publisher Giappichelli, is the first university book in Italian on the topic.
The care work is worth 13% of the world GDP
They continue: «Occasionally estimates of this omission have been made. For example, The OECD concluded that domestic production would add between 20 and 50 percent to the GDP of its member countries (OECD 2012). More recently, Oxfam has calculated that The added value of the unpaid care work to the economy is at least 10.8 trillion dollarsequal to about 13 percent of the world GDP ».
The moral of sympathy
Marcella Corsi adds: «The European Institute for Gender Equality, the World Economic Forum, also the International Monetary Fund also estimated the value of the care work. It is noted that if the calculation of the GDP adapted to the evaluation of the work lent by women for free in the domestic nuclei, the GDP would escape high. This would generate greater well -being for everyone.
Adam Smith, considered the father of the political economy, linked the concept of morality to sympathyidentifying it in the ability to identify with the feelings of others. He did it in what is considered a philosophical work, Moral feelings theoryand moreover economy and philosophy are related social sciences. Well, the moral of sympathy is antithetical, if we want, to the logic of unbridled profit: If you could make decisions by putting us in the role of other people Which, like us, would live the consequences of those decisions, would derive an advantage not only for us, but for the entire community. More equity, more social justice, more solidarity: they are collective assets ».