In observance of International Women’s Day, Athena Infonomics’ Founder and Director Deepa Karthykeyan spoke with Christina Jenq, Ph.D., a senior economist and Athena advisor, on the subject of the care economy.
Of the many interlocking crises that the world faces today, Jenq argues that an often-overlooked yet existential threat is the weakening infrastructure of care. Care work is an underlying foundation of our social and economic prosperity, and there are real-world repercussions when this foundation is impaired. The expansion of women’s education and economic opportunity interacting with rigid gender norms around caregiving have led to a stagnation in the economy and in fertility. This stagnation, Jenq contends, has led to other forms of economic listlessness and is driving political polarization.
Additional Resources on Policy, Influencers, and Peer-Reviewed Academic Work:
Gary Barker, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Promundo-US, co-founder of MenEngage ([ Ссылка ])
Conference: “The US Care Infrastructure: From Promise to Reality” @ American University,” co-sponsored by Institute for Women’s Policy Research and Carework Network ([ Ссылка ])
Waring, Marilyn, and Gloria Steinem. If women counted: A new feminist economics. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
“An Economist’s View on the Care Economy”, U.S. Department of Labor Blog, Office of Public Affairs ([ Ссылка ])
Stevenson, Betsey, and Justin Wolfers. 2009. "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 1 (2): 190-225. ([ Ссылка ])
Albanesi, Stefania. 2019. “Changing Business Cycles: The Role of Women’s Employment.” w25655. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. ([ Ссылка ])
Doepke, M., and M. Tertilt. 2016. “Chapter 23 - Families in Macroeconomics.” In Handbook of Macroeconomics, edited by John B. Taylor and Harald Uhlig, 2:1789–1891. Elsevier. ([ Ссылка ])
Doepke, Matthias, and Fabian Kindermann. 2019. “Bargaining over Babies: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications.” American Economic Review 109 (9): 3264–3306. ([ Ссылка ])
Please contact christina.j@athenainfonomics.com with any comments or questions.
