On 9 March there was a side event in  Geneva on economic inequality, financial crisis and human rights. I attended the event because we have a side event in New York which is relevant to the subject,  and Maria Hengeveld, who is the moderator of that panel, wrote an article in a Dutch weekly magazine. Maria holds that feminism is perverted by  business,  e.g. Goldman Sachs, who says that giving women a job is good for development, because women invest most of their earnings in their family. Women have a human right to all social, economic and cultural rights, not for others but for themselves.

Free market capitalism is responsible for aggressive deregulation and informalisation of work, which  worldwide deprives women of economic security and employment rights.Feminist authors like Hester Eisenstein, Srilatha Batliwala and Chandra Mohanty are convinced of that.

The statement by Juan Pablo Bohoslavky, UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, reaffirms that. So does the research of UNRISD (UN Research Institute for Social Development) on Inequalities and the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and Combating Poverty and Inequality.

More and more inequality within and between countries is seen as hampering economic growth and social development.

Austerity measures adopted in response to financial crises have had robust negative social impacts, exacerbated inequality and pushed disadvantaged groups below minimum income thresholds.

International human rights norms require States to ensure that all persons live with dignity. The existence of extreme inequality  often implies  that States  fail to meet their minimum core obligations under international human rights law.

Inequality often contributes to social exclusion and marginalisation of certain groups and individuals. It is also common for poorer segments of the population to be marginalised or even effectively excluded from the political process. This undermines the right to vote and democracy. Bohoslavky’s report has a number of recommendations on how to reduce inequalities in the prevention of financial crises and in their response. He stressed the contribution of financial market regulation, minimum wages, progressive taxation, and social protection floors in combating  excessive inequalities and ensure better human rights compliance.

UNRISD research found that policy instruments to promote equality of outcome have largely been neglected in the name of approaches that claim to create ‘equality of opportunity’. This approach has not allowed for structural factors that influence individual outcomes and has sidelined powerful policy instruments that can reduce outcome inequalities, such as:

• macroeconomic policies to ensure that sufficient employment is created to absorb new entrants into the labour force.
• Income and social policies to ensure that labour is properly rewarded in a largely globalized economy where its bargaining power has been reduced through informalisation and liberalisation. These include policies to register and protect informal work, ensure effective compliance with minimum wage and anti-discrimination legislation, and state support for smallholder agriculture.
• Widely accessible and good quality social provisions, including education, health, food, housing and social security, to protect against sharp income drops from illness, old age, market risks etc. And compensate for persistently low incomes and their structural causes.
• Widely accessible infrastructure, domestic technology and care services to support the (re)production of labour, disproportionally undertake by women and girls on an unpaid basis.
• Land reform, corporate taxation and progressive income taxation.

Social policy is an integral part of the development strategies of countries that have transformed their economies and reduced poverty relatively quickly. A number of welfare policies are feasible and affordable for countries of fairly low levels of income.

Politics matter for poverty reduction. The protection of civic rights, active and organised citizens, well-organised and representative political parties and effective states with redistributive agendas are all important for sustained progress toward poverty reduction.

Social policies for all, paid for by taxes, are a way to reduce poverty and combat inequalities and further social cohesion.. And the social policies above, described by UNRISD,  guarantee the economic, social and cultural rights, as contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).

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Poverty has affected the lives of millions but the most suffering section of society is the women and children. Because of constraints and discrimination, women have to bear the maximum brunt of poverty.  They cannot afford basic needs like food, clothes, house, education and health-care. Even whatever they can afford is of poor quality. Poverty for them is insecurity, powerlessness and susceptibility to violence and often living without access to clean water and sanitation.

Governments of countries are trying to prove that they are more concerned in framing the women friendly policies and programs to improve their quality of life while the prevailing status of women presents a grim picture. Sources reveal that there has not been any change in their quality of life as is quite evident from their unequal and poor status in the society.
Gender economist, E. Boserup explains that women were not always in disadvantageous position. How they reached the position inferior to that of men has been a long process. During the different stages of economic development, their status deteriorated.
Economic development may have resulted in economic growth but has not resulted in human development, especially since half of the population i. e women seem to have been bypassed in this process. Thus, being poor means that they are resource less, unhealthy, exploited and more vulnerable to sexual harassment.

According to the 2014 edition of the world bank    report, the global target for reducing poverty by half was achieved five years ahead of schedule and the number of poor people – those living on less than $1.25 a day — had halved to 18 percent in 2010 from 36 percent of the population in 1990. Even if the current rate of the progress is to be maintained, around 1 billion people will still live in extreme poverty by 2015.In some developing countries, we continue to see a wide gap between the rich and the poor and between those who can and who cannot access opportunities .Other challenges such as inequality, non effective governance, economic shocks, food insecurity and climate change threaten to undermine the progress made.

According to United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal programme ,270 million or 21.9% people out of 1.2 billion of Indians lived below poverty line of $1.25 in 2011-2012.   According to Tendulkar Poverty Line ,during  the year 2011-12, India had 270 million persons below poverty line as compared to 407 million in 2004-05.These figures indicate that  there is a reduction of 137 million persons over the seven year period.

As per the UNDP report 2014, India ranks 135 in Human Development Index. The number of poor is now estimated at 250 million, of which 200 million reside in rural India. The report states that none of the BRICS countries have made place in the high human development category and India remains at the bottom with lowest HDI value among them. “India is the lowest performing country among the BRICS nations in all categories of the HDI with the exception of life expectancy, which is lower in South Africa as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” the report says. “Everyone should have the right to education, health care and other basic services. Putting this principle of universalism into practice will require dedicated attention and resources, particularly for the poor and other vulnerable groups,” says the report. “Strong universal social protection not only improves individual resilience, it can also bolster the resilience of the economy as a whole. The Human Development Report lays great stress on global agreements and pacts and how these can   contribute to build a universal system. National initiatives for universal provision of services are more easily enacted when global commitments are in place and global support is available. Global agreements are essential because they can instigate action and commitment and generate financial and other support.

CHALLENGES FACED–

There are several challenges facing India today vis via women’s economic development but some of the big red flags are-
Inadequate economic opportunities is one of the biggest causes of female poverty which is one of the big challenges to the progress of women. In India poverty is multi dimensional social problem.  Causes of poverty are many like-unemployment and underemployment, lack of property rights, dependence on agriculture, high population growth rate, caste system, corruption and above all holding of financial resources in the hands of males. Most of the women are not direct earners. They do not have a direct standing in the credit market, either formal or informal, as they do not own any assets in their name. There were no property rights in family property till 2005. The custom of dowry as a substitute to inheritance gave them the role of 2^nd class members of the family and society. There is no budget for spending on their education. Lack of skills, heavy physical work of different types, long hours of work with limited payment, lack of guarantee of minimum wages, lack of job security and social security, lack of minimum facilities at the work place, lack of income after retirement are some of the factors of the informal sector which contribute to women’s weakness. Also female-headed households are likely to suffer more than male-headed households as they have less access to government development programs, welfare schemes, resources and communal assets. 

Male migration from rural to urban areas is also a big problem. Men migrate to other cities leaving behind women and children, making them further vulnerable since they solely depend on men economically.
Providing the inhabitants  with need based skill training at local level, equipping them with the latest techniques, helping them to access the marketing links, setting up of  small enterprises ,will help to stop migration of the labour force in search of jobs. It will create an infrastructure within the community that will be conducive to women’s economic empowerment. In a country like India, where the gender divide and the inequality between men and women is so wide, providing the skills and the opportunity for women at local level to be economically self sufficient is a must for social and political empowerment.  Even though there is a vast development in agriculture technology, it is yet to reach all the villages.
Women entrepreneurship program, access to credit and ensuring their participation in value chains is critical. Provision to centers of higher learning, vocational and skill based training, technical education will help in increasing economic participation and also reduce occupational segregation.

Lack of infrastructure in rural areas increases women’s contribution to unpaid housework. Even today women spend up to six hours, just to fetch drinking water from the ponds, rivers etc. In making the development process inclusive, the challenge is to formulate policies and programs to bridge regional, social and economic disparities in an effective and sustainable manner.

Although the Government’s schemes and programs are quite promising, yet concerted efforts are required to ensure inclusion and empowerment of women in all the schemes and policies formulated so far. The schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), Self Help Groups and many others have opened employment opportunities to women but with low remuneration, minimal benefits and uncertain contracts. The recent announced 2015 budget cuts in the health, education and social sector spending are a further detriment to the development and empowerment of women especially in the rural areas.

In addtion challenges in the form of traditional and cultural practices, socio-economic conditions remain and lack of awareness, inadequate implementation of various policy measures and mechanism  continue.

 Bottom up programs and legislations have further hampered the possibilities of grassroots women’s needs being addressed by development interventions. Any development program that ignores the life chances of half the population cannot address the problems of poverty and crisis of sustainability. 

Inadequate social security net system has not proven effective. At present, whatever the pension amount is given by the government is too little even to survive and it covers only a very small segment of women from  the lowest income group. The rate of pension varies from state to state.

As per UNDP Report 2014   “Universal access is vital to protect people from vulnerability”. I think this is the area where we can work together and put our views strongly for universal access, keeping in mind our national interests and initiatives. Our efforts to create a better society should be based on promoting peace through participatory good governance ,creating  accountability and grievance mechanisms at local, national and international levels.

AIWC’s Initiatives-

Education and empowerment of women have been at the core of All India Women’s Conference’s agenda since its inception in 1927.  AIWC has been striving incessantly to promote literacy and skill training to empower women, for the last 86 years, through our wide network of 500 branches spread all over the country.  Over 1.5 lakh voluntary members work with selfless dedication for the cause of women in various fields.  AIWC’s programs in education, health and eradication of poverty are aimed at helping 50% of our population i.e. women. Empowerment of women is an essential ingredient in protecting women’s right and has to be looked at from a holistic perspective. Proper education, economic self sufficiency, self confidence and courage are needed on the part of the women with a matching response from men based on mutual respect.  HE for SHE , A UN program, where men are a support system to their women, and gender equality becomes a primary goal in all areas of social and economic development.

AIWC has initiated programs like socio-economic, skill centered literacy, health awareness, legal awareness, environment friendly income generating activities, leadership training programs particularly for women Panchayat members, adoption of villages ,rural/urban community resource centres which have brought quite encouraging results. To quote a few—our  projects on solar drying of food products for income generation, sanitary napkin making unit , spice grinding units, dairy farming, provisional stores, medicinal herbs units  etc have been very successful and given economic independence to women in their local area. The results are visible as the living standard has improved and women have emerged as empowered women who are making decisions for their lives. Around 50,000 women and girls have benefited from these programs. Since 1995,we have introduced new ventures like renewable energy, environment friendly alternate vocations for women bidi  workers(rolling of tobacco leaves),Herbal gardening for  women as income generation activity etc. 

The following suggestions would go a long way in bringing women out of the morass of poverty:

1. GIVING WOMEN EQUAL ACCESS TO LAND AND OTHER ASSETS

Due to son preference culture and second class family member status of women throughout world, they do not enjoy entitlement rights of land and other family property .They are always treated as a liability by their parents. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to change the traditional tactics of making women landless and resource less individuals by giving them equal access to assets and resources at par with men so that they can gain control over family as well as community resources, increase their bargaining power and enjoy equal say in decision making.

2.     MAKING VISIBLE THE CARE ECONOMY

It is imperative to measure the output from the Care economy  in terms of time  and in terms of money so that women’s work will gain economic recognition and monetary edge by including it in national accounting system. Although, some recent legislations have supported this view that women’s household work as well as child care should be measured in monetary terms and husbands should be asked to pay for their wives services but yet it also waits for enforcement.

3. INVOLVING women in economic decision making

Economic policy making is the domain of politicians who usually happen to be mostly men. At various decision-making levels, gender imbalances can be distinguished in communities even at the earliest stage of development. Women are underrepresented in decision making in govt., business sector especially at senior levels. The irony is that women are not even involved in decisions related to their life like consent at the time of the marriage, and the decision regarding reproductive matters like how many children she should have or how to go for family planning practices? . Therefore, the demand of time is that women being the implementers of the decisions of men need to be involved in framing policies and plans of the society so that they can  be able to address their issues in a much better way.

4. CHANGING GENDER BASED DIVISION OF LABOUR

A universal trend of dividing the household work according to gender has been acting as the main obstacle in the way of women’s suppression and economic backwardness. All the household drudgery from cooking to crop cultivation, harvesting and rare and care of pet animals in homes is performed by women in Indian society as a whole. Women remain busy with performing household tasks and in addition to this perform the most sacred job of motherhood which leaves no scope for her to work in any productive activity. On the other hand, men have kept themselves away from domestic obligations and care of children which are full time jobs at home and they only participate in economic activities which get in cash income (revenue) and thus enjoy command in household as well as community affairs.  Therefore, this uneven and unequal gender based division of labour needs to be changed and men also have to come forward and share the the burden of domestic duties so that women can participate in economic activities.

5. ACCESS TO CREDIT AND FINANCE

Women face a major constraint in availing the facility of credit. Establishing their small scale enterprises to earn their own livelihood and to become self reliant turns into an unfulfilled dream due to lack of financial availability. They can’t avail loans from banks unlike their male counterparts because they don’t have assets and other property in their name that could be kept as mortgage with the bank. Therefore, it is the utmost responsibility of the government and other financial institutions to come to their rescue and facilitate women by providing them easy access to credit facilities and grant subsidies to encourage them to come forward.

6. GENDER BASE DISTORTIONS

There is discrimination against women workers in the  labour market whereby women performing the same work as their male counterparts are paid less. The minimum wages ACT 1948 is not enforced due to lack of knowledge and information. Thus, gender based price distortions lead to false economics. Economic policy makers aiming to improve overall economic efficiency need to count and measure women’s work equally with men’s so that their contribution does not remain hidden and   invisible. Policy makers should focus and work for creating job opportunities for women and only then their problems of   economic dependence, poverty and resource lesness can be addressed properly in a broader perspective.

7. GENDER BASED INSTITUTIONAL BIASES

Women’s work days are longer than men’s in general. Men monopolize the use of new technology and women have to work with traditional labour intensive techniques. Thus, change from traditional to modern methods of production in any sector tends to enhance men’s prestige at the expense of women’s by widening the gap in their levels of knowledge and training. Thus ,need of the hour is to make these institutions bias free so that women can enter the fields so far denied to them for lack of training and exposure.

8.GENDER BUDGETING

Gender budgeting will help govt and civil society to assess the extent to which gender issues are being addressed through budgetary allocations and expenditures so that women may not be only the beneficiaries of benefits of development but equal participants in the process of development.

9.  GENDER STUDIES

Gender Studies need to be promoted in academic curriculum from the initial stages of schooling so that both boys as well as girls will develop sympathy and respect for each other. There is a need to change the male psyche and sensitize men to understand the role and relevance of their opposite gender in their lives. Gender education will help in promoting gender equality and empowerment of women.

10.POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Women need to be invited in the political domain of societies world over by giving them not only one third representation but fifty percent of their share as per the proportion of population. It is an admitted fact that unless women make their entry into top decision making bodies of the nation, they can’t reshape their destiny.

While cultural, economic and educational inequality in different states make matters more complicated change cannot be escaped, and there can be no standing still. The people of the developing countries must be given opportunity to develop and improve their way of life and make it imperative that all forms of oppression and exploitation should be systematically controlled and ended. It is without doubt in the interests of world harmony and peace that this should be so. How different would our nation be if the ruling party added the concept of economic exploitation of women and girls in their manifesto? The progress of civilization depends on the continuous search for truth and knowledge and that the remedy lies in more liberties, not their suppression, that equal opportunity available to all and all form of gender discrimination ended.

11. STRONG SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM

Provision of a robust social security system for women and girls is the need of the hour. Social services – which include universal access to health care and education, full employment and social protection are required for sustainable and resilient human development. Also there has to be a strong social security system especially for women from private and unorganized sector to provide them economic and health security after a certain age in private and unorganized sector.

I  conclude with a quote of Mahatama Gandhi “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” If we limit our greed and share more with the underpriviledged, we can definitely contribute for creating a harmonious society.

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Ariranga Pillay chairperson of the committee on Economic, Social and cultural rights in a statement published in May 2012 emphasized that economic and financial crises and a lack of growth impede the progressive realization of economic social and cultural rights and can lead to retrogression of the rights as well as social insecurity and political instability and have significant negative impacts in particular on women and on disadvantaged and marginalized groups.

The UN independent Expert on foreign debt and Human Rights Cephas Lumina after a visit to Greece in April 2013 come to the same conclusion and urged  the Greek  government and its creditors to adopt a human rights approach to designing and implementing economic reform.

I will now try to show how structural adjustment programmes in particular austerity measures that have been adopted by a number of countries in our region due to the economical/financial crisis have undermined economic and social rights and have had disastrous effects on people’s lives in particular women’s lives.

I will first look into the impact on women’s work.

Employment
Although men’s employment suffered more in the early stage of the crisis since 2010 women have been affected or even more affected. There has been a narrowing difference between women’s and men’s employment rate but this is not a  sign of increased  gender equality.

It reflects the employment situation of both women and men and the sharper impact on male employment early on in the crisis. The gap is closing due to leveling down wards.

Unlike men women have increased their labor market activity during the crisis, possibly either to compensate for the lost income of a partner or to add to the household income. The male breadwinner model is then losing ground due to the crisis.

Unemployment
In 2012 10.6% of the female force in the EU was unemployed (10.5% for men)

The pre recession gap between women’s and men’s unemployment has evened out due to the sharper rise of men’s unemployment early on in the crisis. Since 2010 however women have been as affected on even more affected by unemployment than men.

Within the EU women are most affected by unemployment in Greece and Spain. In May 2013 the unemployment rate in Greece was 27.6% . For women it was 31.9% and for men it was 24.6%  while for youth between the ages 15-24 it was 64.3%. Female youth unemployment is double that of male youth unemployment.

Women are often in a more precarious situation once they become unemployed and face greater risk of immediate poverty. They may be more likely to be excluded from unemployment benefit systems since they may have broken unemployment histories or may not have made sufficient contributions. Without unemployment benefits they loose their health insurance as well.

Austerity policies have been accompanied by cuts in jobs and wages in the public sector , pay freezers and deterioration of working conditions. The public sector is a major employer for women who account for almost 70% of public sector workers in the EU.

In addition the public sector has in many countries been the driver for gender equality in employment as it mostly provides better employment opportunities , better working conditions including paid leave and higher wages for women.

An extended public sector has tended to reduce the average gender pay gap because the better salaries in the public sector have balanced pay inequalities in the private sector.

Public sector lay offs push women towards precarious employment with limited income security and pension benefits and worse  the overall quality of women’s working conditions.

In Greece following complaints by  the Greek General Confederation of labor the ILO committee of experts on the application of conventions and recommendations examined the compatibility of austerity measures with several international labor conventions . The ILO committee expressed its deep concern at the drastic alterations of labor law through measures which go to the heart of labor relations, social dialogue and social peace nullifying the binding nature of collective agreements.

The committee underlined the disproportionate impact of these measures on women and called for adequate safeguards to protect workers living standards.

Impact of cutbacks on services and benefits
Austerity policies have had severe consequences for those whose livelihoods depend on various social benefits, like maternity leave benefits, parental leave benefits and other care related benefits.

Reduction in social benefits are particularly felt by women as they compromise their economic independence and they heighten their poverty. Vulnerable groups of women such as lone mothers, pensioners and migrant women lose the most.

Savings from care related benefits targeted at men such as withdrawing pay for paternity leave constitute a sever obstacle for equal sharing of care responsibilities between women and men.

Austerity measures have also reduced the availability and affordability of care services for children and other dependents and has forced a number of women to become inactive or work part time.

When households have less income in their hands and when public services are cut or become expensive or unavailable the production of services which previously was the responsibility of the state falls on households that is on women’s shoulders leading to the reprivatisation of care and in a return to traditional gender roles.

The gender gap in the allocation of unpaid care work has increased during the recession.

Women are forced to shoulder the impact of cutbacks in public services as the services are transferred back to the household that is to women. This shift from public care services to unpaid care work within the household poses a severe threat to gender equality. The gender gap in the allocation of unpaid care work has increased during the recession.

Austerity has reduced the availability and affordability of health care services and downgraded their quality with gender consequences that affect the gender division of paid and unpaid labor to the disadvantage of women. In Greece spending on health care has been reduced below 5.3% of GDP in 2013 which is well below the average in EU 6.3%. Overall the health budget has been cut by about 40%. In a number of European countries hospitals have closed/merged the number of hospital beds has been reduced, and co-payments have been adopted job cuts have taken place and an increasing  number of  people are losing public health insurance in Greece  (mainly due to long term unemployment). According to the Independent expert Cephas Lumina these policies adopted by Greece as well constitute retrogressive measures and violate article 12 of the International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.

Concerning education public spending was cut in Greece by 30%  between 2009 to 2013. Also between 2009-2014 14.5% of all school units of primary education and 4% of school units in secondary education have been merged.  The closure of schools has increased school dropout rates. In addition the number of secondary school teachers has been reduced. These cuts  have had a negative impact on the quality of education.

Austerity has also curtailed services designed to end violence against women (VAW) and support the victims of violence. In the UK the funding to VAW services was cut by 31% in 2010. In Greece despite austerity in the last three years 39 consulting centers have been created all over the country in many cities which offer legal advice and psychosocial support to women victims of violence. These centers have been created by the general secretariat for equality and the municipalities.

Also 21 shelters have been created all over Greece by the municipalities and SOS line has been created that works 24 hour a day and offers legal and psychosocial advice to women victims of violence.

State pensions have been a popular target for savings in many European countries. Many countries have changed pension rules in a manner that will have a long term negative impact on women’s economic independence.

Increases in the minimum contribution period for retirement on full pension  and the calculation period for pension on average career earnings rather than final salary penalize women  because of their shorter working life and irregular working patterns. Increase in official retirement age, heavy penalties for early retirement have gendered implications too. The drops in pension will have the consequence of further exposing women to poverty.

In Greece concecutive cuts have reduced pensions by up to 60% (for higher pension) and between 25 and 30% for lower ones. Christmas, Easter and summer bonuses for pensioners  have been abolished.

A special tax on pensions was introduced to ranging from 3% to 9% depending on the  level of pension income and meant to shift the burden of covering deficit of social insurance organization to pensioners themselves.

The independent Expert Chepas Lumina shares the view of the European Committee of Social rights that, the cumulative effect of  laws introduced in Greece as measures in Greece since 2010 restricting and reducing both public and private pension benefits constitute  a violation of the right to social security enshrined in article  12 (3) of the European Social Charter.

While wages are depressed the cost of living is rising due to tax rates aimed to enhance government revenues. Increases in value added tax affect most poor families in particular women who spend most of their income on food and household necessities.

Funding for advancing gender equality has been among the first to be reduced. Austerity policies have had a drastic impact on gender equality bodies, that have either been abolished or merged with other departments, or their budgets have been severely reduced resulting in a loss of visibility and hampering their ability to conduct their work.

Austerity has also impacted women’s organizations many of which offer services for victims of rape or are doing advocacy at a time when their work is most needed.

Some have closed down the rest are struggling to survive. Their voices are silenced at a moment when they should resist austerity policies.

Recommendations to governments
– Systematic gender sensitive analysis of the causes and impact of the financial crisis on women and the responses thereof prior to their implementation.

Integration of a gender perspective in to all recovery and structural adjustment programmes which should include women in particular feminist economists in their elaboration and implementation at all levels of decision making.

– Avoid further cutbacks which should have a long term negative impact on women’s rights and gender equality

– Take targeted measures to improve the living conditions of those groups who have suffered most from the cutbacks including lone mothers and female single pensioners.

– Create jobs especially in the public sector by increasing social infrastructure (education, health, child care) which would ease the disproportionate burden on women to enable them to participate in the labor market.

– Take measures for the reconciliation of work with family obligations.

– Take measures for the equal sharing of unpaid care work between women and men.

– Ensure effective functioning of state gender equality institutions through no further cuts/ increased funding and human resources

– Ensure that there are no further cuts in public funding for women’s organizations.

– Establish a permanent system of gender budgeting and subject all budgetary and taxation measures to a gender impact assessment in order to identify how the unequal effects on men and women can be eliminated.

– Implement measures to combat the ongoing process of feminization of poverty which has been exacerbated by the recession.

-Take measures to combat all forms of violence including the financing of support services for women victims of violence.

-Measures to rebuild revenues to the public account through  taxes on capital gains and tackling tax avoidance and evasion Expenditures should be reduced across public budgets not just social budgets

– Commit to work on the  deconstruction of gender stereotyping .

-Take measures for the equal representation of women in decision making in particular in the financial sector.

– The women’s movement in our region should monitor closely the effects of austerity measures on women’s human rights.

-It should become more vocal on the need for an immediate reform of the global financial architecture that would fully integrate human rights including gender equality and would put an end to the constant search for unlimited growth and maximizing profit to the detriment of the survival of humanity in a human way

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Although the states accepted an obligation to implement gender responsive budgeting (GRB) and to better reflect women in the economy and to change women’s economic position, as part of the Beijing Platform of Action, progress has been slow and uneven. In some countries, gender responsive budgeting has been implemented and budget processes have been transformed to involve the participation of women and civil society and to give serious attention to gendered consequences of local and national budgets. In other cases it has not at all been implemented, or it has been implemented in a shallow way, with lip-service paid to ”gender”, rather than reflecting gender and gendered consequences in the budget processes as well as in the budgets.

Marilyn Waring’s book If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics, published in 1988, was used by many activists and feminist economists to mobilise and push for ”counting women” as part of the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action in their countries and communities. A new book, co-edited by Margunn Bjørnholt and Ailsa McKay: Counting on Marilyn, Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics, explores the range and impact of Waring’s seminal book, over the quarter decade since its publication, on feminist economics as a academic field as well as on feminist activism and mobilisation.

Drawing on these experiences we propose a discussion of the institutional and political factors and critera of success in countries or local communities where gender responsive budgeting has been successfully implemented. -What is the relation between GRB and the institutionalisation of feminist economics as an academic field? – What role does the women’s movement play? – What is the role of feminist economists and other academics as public intellectuals?

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