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Text for the Feminist Economy video-synthesis

We started with the problems we need to face and saw how feminist economy is not just another topic but articulates a systemic and non-fragmented view that intersects the defense of nature, our body and sexuality, our political struggles around the State and democracy, and the questioning of the system of interwoven oppressions.

We know the key concepts of feminist economics and its trajectory.

Feminist economics came to be known by this name during the 1990s, as a current of economic thought, in academic and university circles.

There are different perspectives within feminist economics: those that only incorporate gender into the analysis from the standpoint of hegemonic thinking and are incorporated by liberal feminism and international organizations.

And those that propose a rupture from the concepts and frameworks of hegemonic analysis because these are centered on the experiences of White men, who reduce the economy to that which has a monetary equivalent. Based on this critique, the proposal of feminist economics is to shift the focus from the market to the processes that sustain life.

It is this vision of the sustainability of life and the rupture from hegemonic economic thinking that meets with the anti-capitalist feminist movement, especially during our struggle against the WTO and free trade agreements in the late 1990s. It is not a mere coincidence that this is precisely the period that sees the creation of the World March of Women.

The World March of Women in alliance with the Red Latinoamericana Mujeres Transformando la Economía – REMTE, Latin American Network of Women Transforming the Economy – are important political subjects that incorporated feminist economics into the political vision and strategy of grassroots feminism, as a tool for analysis but also as a proposal for transformation.

From the critique, concepts, and contributions of feminist economics, we highlight:

→ the sustainability of life at the center of our critique and our proposals.

→ confronting the conflict between capital and life and its hegemonic actors: transnational companies and their instruments:

austerity policies,

free trade agreements and investment treaties,

green capitalism and its racist and heteropatriarchal mechanisms for land grabbing, control of bodies and labor exploitation. 

→ the structural questioning of the social division of labor in its various forms (sexual, racial, and international) and its relationship with the mechanisms of disciplining bodies, imposing the gender binary and mandatory heterosexuality.

→ the construction of an integrated and systemic critique and proposals, which are articulated with global proposals for transformation such as food sovereignty and agroecology, the integration of peoples and environmental justice, collective work organized in cooperatives, Buen Vivir (Living Well).

→ a feminist economy is about building counter-hegemony.

capitalism depends on domestic and care work and nature but always hides this dependence.

→ a feminist economy asserts ecodependence and interdependence.

Beyond making domestic and care work visible and recognized, a feminist economy demands its reorganization and socialization.

This involves the dispute with the State for public policies that support care work and social reproduction (such as day care centers, food policies).

Economy and politics are totally intertwined.

And a feminist economy involves the dispute over the concepts of time and work that organize our society.

We also discussed essential and related notions such as:

vulnerability, autonomy and recognition

collective care and life cycles

the importance of breaking with the colonialist vision of the linearity of time in the complex relationship between present, past and future.

Feminist economy as a proposal and strategy requires us to build a plural and diverse political subject, rooted in territories, from the grassroots, strengthened and capable of building alliances.

Via Campesina’s 25 years of experience building food sovereignty is an inspiration.

TO INSPIRE OUR FORMATIVE SESSION TODAY,

WE HAVE GATHERED WHAT YOU CONSIDERED TO BE THE KEY POINTS TO ADVANCE THE PROPOSAL OF A FEMINIST ECONOMY FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY OF LIFE

– the diversity of livelihoods and forms of economic organization as a principle and tool

– articulate production and reproduction, putting life at the center instead of profit

– defend territories, common goods, water, and seeds. A feminist economy is a solution to the ecological crisis

– women shall have access to and control of the production process

– importance of collectivity and community

– value the work of women in families and communities, in health and care work

– focusing work, care, and production in the collectivity breaks away with neoliberalism’s individualist logic

– focus our actions on the well-being of human beings and the regeneration of nature

– universal childcare

– overcome the boundaries of care in patriarchy: integrating the spiritual, cultural, and emotional dimensions

– create spaces for sharing different experiences of collective work, cooperative work and oral transmission of women’s traditional crafts

– put the body in a feminist economy

– have pleasure!

– live a dignified life without violence

– reclaim and be the “savage”

– break with exploitation-domination and racism

– transform subjectivity and denaturalize the common sense about the organization of work: who does what and how it is produced

– deprivatize, decommodify

– denounce the crimes of transnational corporations that destroy nature and ways of life, that engage in land grabbing and expel communities

– for a solidarity, egalitarian and fair economy

– share the care work, including in our social movements

– end debts and indebtedness

– food sovereignty with its six pillars is part of the feminist economy

– recognition of those who make the food

– recognition of women’s work in preserving and regenerating nature

– protect women’s ancestral knowledge

– anti-patriarchal and emancipatory youth education

– put self-care as paramount in a collective perspective

– dispute consciousness and fight the battle of ideas: politicize care

– stop being invisible

– accept all people and their right to gender identity

– rethink time, dispute time

– assert the autonomy of bodies and recognition of people who have a disability as subjects with autonomy

– open paths for the generations to come. Our legacy beyond death.

– feminist seed banks to ensure food sovereignty and build independence from transnational corporations

– live in connection with food and land

– learning between people, generations and communities

– interdependence and ecodependence

– reciprocity

– solidarity

– integration of peoples

– network of life

– the sustainability of life and the collective and common good at the center

– a feminist economy can be a strategy to connect and integrate struggles, overcoming fragmentation