Harvesting Feminist Knowledge For Public Policy

Reflecting on the flaws in the patterns of development, this title argues for political, economic, and social changes to promote equality and sustainability. It also argues that the very approach being taken to understand and measure progress, and plan for and evaluate development, needs rethinking in ways that draw on the experiences of women.

Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy brings together 14 essays by feminist thinkers from different parts of the world, reflecting on the flaws in the current patterns of development and arguing for political, economic, and social changes to promote equality and sustainability. The contributors argue that the very approach being taken to understand and measure progress, and plan for and evaluate development, needs rethinking in ways that draw on the experiences and knowledge of women. All the essays, in diverse ways, offer proposals for alternative ideas to address the limitations and contradictions of currently dominant theories and practices in development, and move towards the creation of a socially just and egalitarian world.

Professor Ailsa McKay, who was known not only for her work as a feminist economist but also her influence on Scottish social and economic policy, died in 2014 at the height of her academic career and impact on public life. Organised around the key themes of Ailsa McKay’s work, this collection brings together eminent contributors to argue for the importance of making women's roles and needs more visible in economic and social policies. Feminist Economics and Public Policy presents a uniquely coherent analysis of key issues including gender mainstreaming, universal childcare provision and universal basic income security, in the context of today’s challenging economic and political environments. It draws on international perspectives to look at the economic role of women, presenting readers with interrelated sections on gender budgeting and work and childcare, before concluding with a discussion on Citizens Basic Income and how it could contribute towards a more efficient, equitable social security system. The theoretical, empirical and practice based contributions assembled here present recommendations for more effective public policy, working towards a world in which women’s diverse roles are recognized and fully accounted for. This book is a unique collection, which will be of great relevance to those studying gender and economics, as well as to researchers or policy makers.

Gender inequality is profoundly unjust and in clear contradiction to the philosophy of the ‘fair go’. In spite of some action by recent governments, Australia has fallen behind in policy and outcomes, even as the G20 group of nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Monetary Fund are paying renewed attention to gender inequality. Tax, Social Policy and Gender presents new research on entrenched gender inequality in a comparative framework of human rights and fiscal sustainability. Ground-breaking empirical studies examine unequal returns to education for women and men, decision-making about child care by fathers and mothers, the history and gendered effects of the income tax and family payments, and women in the top 1 per cent. Contributors demonstrate how Australia’s tax, social security, child care, parental leave, education, work and retirement income policies intersect to compound gender inequality. Tax, Social Policy and Gender calls for a rethinking of equality and efficiency in tax and social policy and provides new policy solutions. It offers a pathway to achieve gender mainstreaming for women’s economic security and the wellbeing of all Australians.

The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements explores the historical, political, economic and social contexts in which transnational feminist movements have emerged and spread, and the contributions they have made to global knowledge, power and social change over the past half century. The publication of the handbook in 2015 marks the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations International Women's Year, the thirtieth anniversary of the Third World Conference on Women held in Nairobi, the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the fifteenth anniversaries of the Millennium Development Goals and of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on 'women, peace and security'. The editors and contributors critically interrogate transnational feminist movements from a broad spectrum of locations in the global South and North: feminist organizations and networks at all levels (local, national, regional, global and 'glocal'); wider civil society organizations and networks; governmental and multilateral agencies; and academic and research institutions, among others. The handbook reflects candidly on what we have learned about transnational feminist movements. What are the different spaces from which transnational feminisms have operated and in what ways? How have they contributed to our understanding of the myriad formal and informal ways in which gendered power relations define and inform everyday life? To what extent have they destabilized or transformed the global hegemonic systems that constitute patriarchy? From a position of fifty years of knowledge production, activism, working with institutions, and critical reflection, the handbook recognizes that transnational feminist movements form a key epistemic community that can inspire and provide leadership in shaping political spaces and institutions at all levels, and transforming international political economy, development and peace processes. The handbook is organized into ten sections, each beginning with an introduction by the editors. The sections explore the main themes that have emerged from transnational feminist movements: knowledge, theory and praxis; organizing for change; body politics, health and well-being; human rights and human security; economic and social justice; citizenship and statebuilding; militarism and religious fundamentalisms; peace movements, UNSCR 1325 and postconflict rebuilding; feminist political ecology; and digital-age transformations and future trajectories.

The Politics of Feminist Knowledge Transfer draws together analytical work on gender training and gender expertise. Its chapters critically reflect on the politics of feminist knowledge transfer, understood as an inherently political, dynamic and contested process, the overall aim of which is to transform gendered power relations in pursuit of more equal societies, workplaces, and policies. At its core, the work explores the relationship between gender expertise, gender training, and broader processes of feminist transformation arising from knowledge transfer activities. Examining these in a reflective way, the book brings a primarily practice-based debate into the academic arena. With contributions from authors of diverse backgrounds, including academics, practitioners and representatives of gender training institutions, the editors combine a focus on gender expertise and gender training, with more theory-focused chapters.

At no point in recorded history has there been an absence of intense, and heated, discussion about the subject of how to conduct relations between women and men. This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to these omnipresent issues and debates, mapping the present and future of thinking about feminist theory. The chapters gathered here present the state of the art in scholarship in the field, covering: Epistemology and marginality Literary, visual and cultural representations Sexuality Macro and microeconomics of gender Conflict and peace. The most important consensus in this volume is that a central organizing tenet of feminism is its willingness to examine the ways in which gender and relations between women and men have been (and are) organized. The authors bring a shared commitment to the critical appraisal of gender relations, as well as a recognition that to think ‘theoretically’ is not to detach concerns from lived experience but to extend the possibilities of understanding. With this focus on theory and theorizing about the world in which we live, this Handbook asks us, across all disciplines and situations, to abandon our taken-for-granted assumptions about the world and interrogate both the origin and the implications of our ideas about gender relations and feminism. It is an essential reference work for advanced students and academics not only of feminist theory, but of gender and sexuality across the humanities and social sciences.

There is intensified interest in designing information and communication technologies (ICTs) that respond to ways of doing, knowing, and saying that differ from those that dominate in producing ICTs and, in particular, to ‘traditional’ or ‘indigenous’ knowledges. ICT endeavours for indigenous or traditional knowledges (ITK) vary. Some aim to extend ITK digitally and others use ICTs to improve the economic and/or political situation of marginalised groups. This book presents themes that arise in designing to respond to ITK in different cultural, social, physical, and historical contexts.