The Post-Conflict Care Economy and Depletion of Women’s Labour
Researchers from Monash University’s Gender, Peace and Security Centre (Monash GPS) and the University of Warwick’s Global Research Priority Programme on International Development participated in a two-day workshop in September at the Monash Prato Centre, Italy. The aim of the project, funded through the Monash Warwick Alliance, is to develop new theoretical and methodological frontiers to explore the connections between women’s unpaid care work, the effects of conflict and the impact of global economic competition in post-conflict transitions.
The two-day workshop was led by Professor Jacqui True (Director of Monash GPS) and Professor Shirin Rai (University of Warwick) and the project is aimed at directly influencing global policy agendas, in light of the 2017 UN Women priority theme of ‘Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work,’ and the 2017 Final Report of the High-Level Panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment, which acknowledges the need for sustainable care economies.
Academics and doctoral students from both Monash and Warwick discussed how to measure the value of women’s economic contributions in post-conflict contexts and how to translate this new knowledge to influence the role of national economic institutions and international financial institutions including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development banks.
Over the two days a range of research approaches was considered, exploring the effects of gendered identities and the intersection with other identities that produce and are affected by violence. The project will develop new ways of thinking about household and community social reproduction and the challenges that women in particular face given their disproportionate labour caring and provisioning for others, critically analysing the intensifying costs of this labour in ‘post’-conflict contexts where people are often physically injured and mentally traumatised by war and forced militarization and economic and social infrastructures have often suffered irreparable damage. It will also consider what state and non-state networks might be mobilised to re-build the social infrastructures required to support those engaged in post-conflict care economies.
A subsequent workshop will be held in July 2018 and it is hoped that the project will provide recommendations for international organisations, donor and post-conflict states on where actual investments and efforts need to be made for women and girls in post-conflict situations to achieve greater gender equality and justice after war and conflict.