The first evidence gathering session of the Commission, focusing on Gender and the Economy.
-
On Friday 14 November 2014
-
With Professor Diane Perrons and Professor Nicola Lacey
Over the last few years, the question of gender inequality in the economy has attained a prominent place in public and policy debates. The focus has been on women’s participation in the labour force and within senior positions in organisations. While some progress has been made, women remain underpaid, under-appreciated, under-utilized, and over-exploited.
Focusing on access to, exclusion from, and inequality within the economy, the Commission will gather evidence:
a) on the unequal positioning of women and men in the economy, including the ways in which gender intersects with other aspects of social disadvantage;
b) examine the socio-economic costs and implications of gender inequality, including the extent to which progress in some areas and for some social groups may depend on or exacerbate inequalities in others;
c) investigate the processes which reproduce and legitimate economic inequality; and
d) consider what might be done to enhance greater gender equality and economic justice for all.
In addressing these themes, attention will also be given to how these issues relate to the cross cutting themes of the Commission, for example, how domestic violence in addition to individual and social harm and injustice has economic costs and impacts on women’s economic participation, how austerity policies can lead to a regression of social rights, how representations of women and men, alongside other dimensions of social difference impact on occupational choice and valuation, and how what takes place in the family shapes and constrains decisions about participation in the economy.
Podcasts on Gender and the Economy
Scarlet Harris, TUC Women’s Equality Officer, talks about gender and inequality in the labour market
Scarlet is the TUC’s Women’s Equality Officer, based in the Equality and Employment Rights Department. In this podcast, Scarlet talks about women in the labour market as part of the LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power.
The Co-Director of the LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power talks about gender and inequality in the economy
In this podcast, Professor Diane Perrons analyses gender dimensions of increasing economic inequality with particular reference to crises, austerity and alternative patterns of socially sustainable development. Much of her work examines the interplay between economic and social theory and everyday life. She is currently co-directing the LSE’s Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power.
Stephanie Seguino discusses her lecture on Race, Gender and Austerity as part of the Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power
Professor Stephanie Seguino reflects on how single parent households and certain racial groups were disadvantaged before the economic crisis and they experience the greatest burden of austerity after the crisis. She argues this will lead to long-term problems in the economy.