/ Economics and Development from a Gender Perspective

Towards the end of 2008, NGO-representatives and woman scientists founded the association WIDE Switzerland to communicate insights and points of view from a gender perspective. Besides presenting critical analyses focussing on gender relations, WIDE introduces feminist positions on macro-economics and develops alternatives to the dominant economic model.

As one of twelve national platforms, WIDE is actively involved in Women In Development Europe and is a significant contributor to current debates on fighting poverty, development, (free) trade policies, UN reforms and funding. cfd represents the Swiss platform of the European control group and is based at the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies (Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Geschlechterforschung IZFG) of the University of Bern.

Conference on Care Economies

To set the scene, WIDE Switzerland has held an international conference on Care Economies in Basel, 18 - 20 June, 2009. More than any other sphere of work, the areas of care and nurturing are marked by a pronounced asymmetry on a gender level. World wide, three quarters of all caring is done by women who are either badly paid or not paid at all. This enormously important economic sector is still being externalised by dominant economic theories and is persistently considered non-economic. This attitude continues, in spite of the fact that care crises are becoming increasingly visible due to food insecurities and other developments related to processes of globalisation. It has become imperative to look closely at the dynamic interplay of gender, economic environments and development.