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On 8th of March, the Whitaker Institute was delighted to host Engendering the Macroeconomy: Current Efforts and Future Directions. Economics has neglected integrating gender in its analysis and as a result economic discourse fails to see and address gender inequality in the context of a modern economy. Feminist Economists have been pushing the frontiers of Economics, for the past three decades, in articulating the consequences of development and growth for gender inequality, and the implications of persistent gender inequalities on inclusive growth and sustainable development In the last decade, more exciting and promising research has emerged in this field including the specific theme of ‘engendering macroeconomics’. This session focused on exploring what engendering the macroeconomy entails – what are some of the current efforts, what challenges are faced and what are some future directions. Maria Floro, PI of Hewlett funded research programme on ‘Care Work and the Economy’,  and Srinivasan Raghavendra, Co-PI of DFID funded research on ‘Economic and Social Costs of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)’ and also a research associate in the Hewlett project, shared insights from their work on integrating the issues of care work and VAWG into macroeconomic analysis as well as their reflections on advancing gender-sensitive macroeconomic policy models.

The event was hosted by Dr Nata Duvvury, co-leader of the Gender and Public Policy cluster.

The event is available to watch back here.

This session was jointly organised by the Gender and Public Policy Cluster and the Centre for Global Women’s Studies

Speakers

Maria S. Floro is Professor of Economics and co-director of the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics (PGAE) at American University in Washington DC. Her publications include co-authored books on Informal Credit Markets and the New Institutional Economics, Women’s Work in the World Economy, and Gender, Development, and Globalization:  Economics as if All People Mattered and articles on time use, care work and unpaid work, gender and vulnerability, urban food security, poverty, ecological crises, household savings, credit and informal employment. Dr. Floro currently leads the Care Work and the Economy Project (www.careworkeconomy.org).

Srinivas Raghavendra is Lecturer in Economics and co-PI of the DFID funded project on Economic and Social Costs of Violence against Women and Girls (www.whatworks.co.za). He is also member for the Research Network for the Care Work and Economy Project. His main area of research has been in Macroeconomics, with a particular emphasis on understanding the implications of financialization for distribution and growth.For the last number of years, he has been working in this broad field of Engendering Macroeconomics focused on a diverse set of questions ranging from integrating the issue of violence against women and unpaid care work in the macroeconomic models. His publications in this field include journal article in the Feminist Economics on the issue of violence against women, commissioned research report for the World Bank on the Intimate parter violence, commissioned research report on microfinance, care work and the macroeconomy for the Care Work and the Economy project and a working paper on the implications of violence against women for growth in the Levy Economics Institute New York.