History of sorts was made recently when the 16th annual conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) was held in Bangkok from June 29 to July 1 – this was the first time ever that a south Asian country was hosting this conference.
Participants from over 50 countries, consisting of academics, activists, policy makers, NGOs and research workers representing several streams of the social sciences as well as law, medicine and journalism, gathered to discuss a wide variety of theme areas ranging from international migration and its effects on women, to region-specific concerns like trafficking in women, and gender issues in international trade.
The common thread running through these diverse sessions was the focus on a feminist perspective.
The beginning
IAFFE was formed when some women economists attending the annual sessions of the American Economic Association in the US in 1990 felt that mainstream economics was not giving adequate attention to the gender dimension of economic theories and policies, and decided to hold an impromptu session titled “Can feminism find a home in economics?”
Eighty seven economists signed up immediately, and IAFFE received formal recognition as a global academic initiative in 1992.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is a member of IAFFE and was the keynote speaker at the association’s annual conference held at Oxford.
The economies of most developing nations in Asia now include a significant contribution to their GDP through remittances from migrants –and women migrants in particular. One third of the $8 billion earned by the Philippines,  comes from women migrant workers based overseas, while Nepalese women remitted Rs 12.9 billion to their homeland last year.
When economists refer to “work” they mean something quite different from what women call work – a housewife works but doesn’t count as “working,” since only paid employment constitutes “work” in conventional economics.
Economic indicators of “progress” (export earnings, rise in  money incomes, trade figures, forex reserves) never include equity as an indicator of performance, and this is what feminist economics seeks to change, by looking at the gender component of all economic policy decisions. IAFFE’s initiative is thus seen as path-breaking.
Feminisation
Recent sociological researches have proved that intra-familial equity does not necessarily flow from economic advancement. In fact, the feminisation of poverty (increase in the proportion of females among those below the poverty line) is now a well-documented phenomenon in all regions of the world that have seen economic growth with market liberalisation.
The widening gap between the rich and the poor that economic liberalisation policies have caused, is one of the reasons for the rising trend of migration among women – from the rural areas to the cities to eke out a living as construction labourers or petty vendors when farm work becomes unprofitable, or from developing countries to other regions in search of work.
Maids from Kerala or the Philippines seeking jobs in the Gulf countries, and Mexican women crossing into the US to become industrial workers, are all part of this. In addition to the oppressive work conditions that all migrants, male or female, face women migrants face additional, gender-linked problems like sexual harassment and vulnerability.
Economists have only recently recognised these gender-related strands of economic activity that need to be addressed, if progress is to be meaningful for women who have historically received less than their deserved share of attention. As one IAFFE member put it, if you want to describe feminist economics in just two words, it is “better economics.”