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This study examines the relationship between unpaid care work, financial well-being, and stress levels among women during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic caused downturns in the economies of countries worldwide and led to uncertainties and changes that created conditions for increased stress levels and consequently impaired well-being. In addition to social distancing and lockdown measures to cope with the virus, working from home, home schooling, caring for sick and older family members, and financial problems have added burdens and have proven to be additional personal and family stressors. The findings are based on an online survey conducted among women during the second lockdown in Croatia. Additional unpaid care work and lower financial well-being affect the increased stress felt by women during the pandemic. This is especially pronounced among women who are more involved in paid work. During the pandemic, additional unpaid care work, increased involvement in paid work, and jeopardized financial well-being were stressors for women. Our results indicate the importance of women s free time for their own and their families 'well-being.

This paper addresses the question of how to organize care in degrowth societies that call for social and ecological sustainability, as well as gender and environmental justice, without prioritizing one over the other. By building on degrowth scholarship, feminist economics, the commons, and decolonial feminisms, we rebut the strategy of shifting yet more unpaid care work to the monetized economy, thereby reinforcing the separation structure in economics. A feminist degrowth imaginary implies destabilizing prevalent dichotomies and overcoming the (inherent hierarchization in the) boundary between the monetized economy and the invisibilized economy of socio-ecological provisioning. The paper proposes an incremental, emancipatory decommodification and a commonization of care in a sphere beyond the public/private divide, namely the sphere of communitarian and transformative caring commons, as they persist at the margins of capitalism and are (re-)created by social movements around the world.HIGHLIGHTS Degrowth aims at creating human flourishing within planetary boundaries.As feminist degrowth scholarship, this study discusses degrowth visions for care work.It problematizes the shifting of yet more unpaid care work to the monetized economy.Instead, it proposes collective (re)organization in the sphere of the commons.Caring commons are no automatism for a gender-just redistribution of care work.

Feminist economics is a school of economic thought and political action that gained important visibility during the 1990s, although its origins can be dated back to the mid-19th century. Since then, feminist economics has developed its own concepts, analytical frameworks, and methodologies. With gender as a central category, it seeks a more integral and humane comprehension of the economy and of the processes of inclusion and exclusion taking place in it. In addition, feminist economics has grown into a political practice that aims at improving the functioning of the economic system so that all people can have access to a dignified life on the basis of equality. This article presents a general systematization of these theoretical and political dimensions, particularly focusing on the critique of the neoclassical paradigm and its political correlates. We connect the epistemological, methodological, and conceptual contributions of feminist economics, as well as its propositions for transformative action, to specific debates on economic issues, such as the ecological emergency, crisis and austerity, the commodification of life, and the liberalization of trade.

An extensive literature shows how property inheritance is biased against women in many developing countries, yet relatively little attention has been given to gender bias in other means of acquiring physical assets, such as the market. Using individual-level data from Ecuador, Ghana, and Karnataka, India, this study analyzes modes of acquisition and financing of housing, agricultural land, other real estate, and businesses. The findings show that women acquire fewer of their assets through the market than men, and that in asset markets, both men and women are more likely to use their own savings than to use credit. The study also analyzes current loans for asset acquisition and finds that, in general, women tend to be somewhat disadvantaged in securing formal bank loans. The results suggest that financial inclusion to promote more gender equal access to accumulation of assets should focus on both savings and credit, with priority to savings.

Cet article propose d’étudier l’économie solidaire sous le prisme du genre à partir d’un double regard, critique et possibiliste. Ce double regard, inspiré à la fois de l’économie substantive polanyienne et des recherches féministes, éclaire la manière dont les pratiques d’économie solidaire renouvellent l’économique et le politique, compris ici à la fois comme catégories d’action et de pensée. Il met aussi en lumière les chemins multiples et sinueux de l’émancipation, fruit d’un entremêlement entre principes d’échange dont l’équilibre est en renouvellement permanent.

This article examines the evolution of the sociotechnical systems that is leading to a massive increase in the overall indebtedness of marginalized populations in the Global South. I analyze the processes through which Big Data (or alternative data) technologies are transforming the infrastructure of fringe finance, the nature of its power relations, and its capacities. The article identifies the consequences of these technological transformations on financial practices and illustrates the qualitative nature of the changes involved. I propose that while these innovations have increased the power of this market to capture value, they have also increased risks to indebted populations and the infrastructure's stability. I argue that these financial practices, enhanced by the power of Big Data, have made the infrastructure of fringe finance dangerously hermetic to careful consideration of the productive capacities of those being targeted for inclusion into the formal financial system, thereby making it potentially dysfunctional.

This study deals with the effect of microcredit on women’s livelihood and empowerment in rural areas of Cote d’Ivoire. A cross-section survey was conducted among 185 borrowers from two microfinance institutions and 209 nonborrowers in rural areas of Cote d’Ivoire. In addition, a focus group discussion was held with each of the two women groups. After matching the two groups on the probability of obtaining credit, we found that the microcredit group on average had a higher income and a higher value of household assets than the non-borrowers. No differences in the value of personal women’s assets were found. Furthermore, on one hand women’s decision-making power in the household, as indicated by their strategic gender needs, was positively related to the probability of obtaining microcredit. On the other hand receiving microcredit tended to increase their decisionmaking power.

This paper provides a brief history of feminist contributions to the analysis of gender, poverty, and inequality in the field of international development. It draws out the continuous threads running through these contributions over the years, as the focus has moved from micro-level analysis to a concern with macro-level forces. It concludes with a brief note on some of the confusions and conflations that continue to bedevil attempts to explore the relationship between gender, poverty, and inequality.

L’économie est l’une des dernières sciences humaines et sociales à avoir intégré le genre. Cet article interroge la résistance de la science économique au genre et montre comment celui‑ci fut finalement introduit, à travers trois moments clés de cette histoire : le débat sur la valeur du travail domestique ; la critique féministe en épistémologie et histoire de la pensée économique ; la construction d’une économie néoclassique du genre à partir des travaux de Gary Becker. Grâce à l’importante production qui en a résulté, l’économie a certes pu rattraper son retard, mais elle a absorbé le genre sans avoir été ébranlée dans ses fondements. L’économie du genre s’est moulée dans les divisions de la science économique.

La mesure actuellement la plus utilisée pour recenser la richesse d’un pays est le Produit intérieur brut, qui représente la valeur monétaire des biens et services fabriqués une année donnée. Cet indicateur a été inventé au sortir de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Comme tous les indicateurs il est issu de « conventions », parmi lesquelles celle de ne pas considérer comme faisant partie de la richesse nationale les activités réalisées au sein du foyer, qui ont très longtemps été prises en charge par les seules femmes et dont la répartition reste encore aujourd’hui très déséquilibrée entre les femmes et les hommes. L’article vise dans un premier temps à revenir sur les raisons – implicites ou explicites – de cette exclusion. Il présente ensuite une des manières de faire justice à un certain nombre de revendications féministes qui considèrent légitime de prendre au moins la mesure de la contribution de la production domestique à la richesse nationale en réalisant une estimation monétaire de celle-ci. Après avoir envisagé les différentes méthodes d’estimation, jusqu’à la plus récente, proposée par la Commission Stiglitz et l’ocde, ainsi que les avantages et inconvénients de celles-ci, nous analysons dans une dernière partie une autre manière de dépasser les limites intrinsèques au pib : le développement de nouveaux indicateurs plus axés sur la santé sociale, en envisageant, de manière exploratoire, les modalités d’une meilleure prise en compte des inégalités entre femmes et hommes.

How should “care” be defined and measured in ways that enhance our understanding of the impact of economic development on women? This paper addresses this question, suggesting several possible approaches to the development of indices that would measure gender differences in responsibility for the financial and temporal care of dependents.

The past decade has seen a proliferation of writing by feminist economists. Feminist economists are not identified with one particular economic paradigm, yet some common methodological points seem to be emerging. I propose making these starting points more explicit so that they can be examined, critiqued, and built upon. I use the term “social provisioning” to describe this emerging methodology. Its five main components are: incorporation of caring and unpaid labor as fundamental economic activities; use of well-being as a measure of economic success; analysis of economic, political, and social processes and power relations; inclusion of ethical goals and values as an intrinsic part of the analysis; and interrogation of differences by class, race-ethnicity, and other factors. The paper then provides brief illustrations of the use of this methodology in analyses of US welfare reform, gender and development, and feminist ecological economics.

Les français passent davantage de temps à « faire le ménage » qu'à « gagner leur vie » : le travail domestique occupe environ 48 milliards d'heures chaque année tandis que 41 milliards seulement sont consacrés au travail professionnel. Peut-on évaluer ce travail domestique autrement que par le temps passé à l'effectuer? Attribuer une valeur monétaire à ce travail non rémunéré, n'est- ce pas le dénaturer? La question, posée depuis longtemps, a connu un regain d'intérêt dans les années récentes. Cet article, qui est le résumé d'une étude publiée dans Archives et documents, prend le problème d'un point de vue plutôt macroéconomique et cherche ce que vaudrait le travail domestique par comparaison avec le produit intérieur brut. On trouve que les activités ménagères contribueraient à la valeur du PIB marchand pour un tiers ou pour les trois-quarts, selon la méthode choisie. Si l'éventail est large, la proportion est dans tous les cas considérable.