Rethinking Gender Equality in the Crisis

What has gone wrong? Despite progress on many fronts, some of the most important indicators for measuring gender equality are static of regressing in most Member States (see gender equality index; pay gap but also income, actual working time, fathers engagement,… are stagnating or increasing with inequalities). Crisis, economic downturn, cuts in public services are  making women more vulnerable . Are we going backwards? This adverse trend after some 50 years of slow but steady improvement has led to question the very roots of second wave feminism which have inspired most of the political struggles and policy initiatives so far. Nancy Fraser for instance wonders how a movement that started out with a critique of capitalist exploitation ended up contributing key ideas to its latest neoliberal phase. This multi disciplinary round table will look into the effect of the crisis on gender equality and the fundamental questioning of second wave feminism? Will the exit from the crisis need a fundamental reshuffling of what is economic activity? Should waged work be decentered and value been recentered on unwaged activities including care work? Does the EU’s financial and fiscal architecture need restructuring to bring it into alignment with the EU’s fundamental value of gender equality?