1. Economy as a gender equality question The case of the EU’s budget and economic policies
Anna Elomäki
Senior Researcher
University of Tampere
@AnnaElomaki

2. Gender equality vs. economy
Gender equality and economy often seen as separate questions
Hierarchy: economy comes first
Collaboration between actors rare
Gender knowledge not taken into account in policy-making
Gender equality and the economy are part of the same coin
Economic policies have gendered impacts
Gender equality influences economic outcomes
Economy is a gender equality question: more dialogue and collaboration

3. Towards gender aware economic policy
Individual reforms (e.g. work life balance) not enough, need to rethink what the economy is
Economic policies are based on gendered background assumptions and hierarchies
These assumptions and hierarchies hide, legitimate and reproduce inequality

4. Gendered understanding of the economy
Unpaid work and its providers marginalized in mainstream understandings of the economy
Unpaid work mainly done by women: PT, IE and IT more than 70%, Finland 59%
Unpaid work increases well-being and makes the functioning of economy possible…
…yet not taken into account in national accounts and GDP
Unpaid work has significant value: In Finland would increase GDP by 41% (2012)

5. Gendered ideas of economic value
Systematic undervaluation of women’s work at micro and macro level
Pay differences between male and female dominated sectors and professions
Female-dominated sectors seen as less important and less useful for the economy than male-dominated sectors

6. Care as an economic question
In economic policy debate care mainly seen as economic cost
Unwillingness to pay for care: we are used in that someone cares for free or cheaply
Care has always costs for someone: when public care services are cut, costs are transferred to households
Feminist economics: ’reproductive economy’ as important part of the economy as ’productive economy’

7. Some ways forward Gender budgeting
Goals of economic policy: from competitiveness to well-being, from budget deficits to care deficits
Taking unpaid work into account: measure value, impact assessments, sharing
Invest in social infrastructure

8. Gender equality in the EU’s budget
A small and declining share of EU funding
Disappearance of specific budgets for gender equality
Visibility of gender equality objectives in ESIF has gradually declined
Gender mainstreaming commitments = red tape?
Commitment to gender budgeting weak, but some progress made in annual budget process
Current negotiations on the MFF and funding programmes key moment for gender budgeting!

9. Gender equality in the EU’s economic policies and governance
Declining visiblity of gender equality in the EU’s economic strategies
Crisis has pushed gender knowledge into margins
Gendered effects of crises responses and policy recommendations not assessed
Integration of gender equality in the European Semester remains partial
Bigger question: what do the EU’s narrow conceptualizations of the economy imply for the identification and addressing of gender inequalities?