Abstract

We live in a world where money is the basis of status, power and freedom, and yet women are expected to perform society’s unpaid work. Women’s role as carer has profound implications for social status and ability to live the life of ones choosing. Opting to care for others often means giving up well paid career opportunities with security in old age.  In this talk the pre-eminent feminist economist, Marilyn Waring will explore options for overcoming what is arguably the single greatest barrier to women achieving genuine equality.

Marilyn Waring’s ground breaking work in Counting for Nothing: what men value and what women are worth is internationally respected, and her extensive body of research has spanned political economy, governance and public policy, gender analysis and human rights. In a recent anthology, Counting on Marilyn Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics, 31 authors from nine countries outline the wide ranging impact and resonance of Professor Waring’s work as well as the current frontiers of feminist economics.

Waring’s advocacy through her position in the New Zealand parliament during the 1970s made a critical contribution to their nuclear free Pacific stance. Her distinguished career includes acting as an advisor to numerous organisations not least the United Nations and in 2003 she was appointed to the Board of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. She is the winner of numerous honours and awards including the Amnesty International New Zealand Human Right’s Defender Award in 2013 and the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research Economics Award in 2014.

For more information about the Pamela Denoon lecture series please visit their website.