Despite considerable innovations, current debates in CPE and IPE still revolve around traditional topics of political economy. Implicitly or explicitly, they convey a male view of the world. To put it differently, the imaginaries of contemporary political economy are filled with the male world of (car) production, manufacturing unions, skilled workers, high-end services, high finance, central banking and multinational corporations. However, major disruptions affecting current political economies stem from household financialisation, multiple crises of care, austerity wreaking havoc with education, health and social welfare systems, and a backlash against women`s economic, social and political rights. They have a gender dimension that is largely ignored.
Contemporary political economy thus reproduces one of [CPE’s and] IPE’s most pervasive and long-standing blind spots relat[ing] to gender, households and social reproduction (Le Baron et al. 2021: 287). This also applies to an academic world where women mostly just fall out. While it has now been customary that women are invited to contribute to the debate, all too often this comes as an afterthought and cannot be taken for granted, despite the fact that women have contributed significantly to existing debates.
As female political economists, we therefore see a need to a) make women`s work in the field more visible, b) to engage with the fields and our own 'blind spot' of paying little systematic attention to issues of gender, and c) enter into dialogue with feminist political economists. The ultimate aim is to find out how political economy that is sensitive to the gender dimension of research topics might change debates in political economy.
This workshop asks scholars with related topics to discuss why they conducted their research the way they did, with more or less explicit references to what the issue under consideration means for women (30 minutes discussion among themselves, 30 minutes Q&A). This can include a reflection on what they missed by not focusing on gender or what it would mean for political economy if it were ‘gender mainstreamed’, respectively.
Online participation only.