Climate, Feminism and Economics Webinar for the General Public
About this Event
Climate, Feminism and Economics Webinar for the General Public
Raising Momentum for Climate Ambition – Our house is on Fire- Towards COP26
How 200 years of mainstream thought has continued to undermined women and their contribution, status, role and the truth. It has worked to impoverish women and prevented them taking their important role in solving the critical challenges of today- How mainstream economics has justified the complete domestication of nature and women and ultimately the denouem
The Green Economics Institute Exhibition Stand was one of the few at Paris United Nations COP15 in 2015, which Ban Ki Moon- The General Secretary of the United Nations said had real solutions to address climate change. It has always incorporated gender at its core. The Institute has regular climate delegations. This webinar shares its narratives and findings with The General Public.
The Green Economics Institute which is co hosting this event, has a very active delegation to the United Nations Climate Conferences- COP, most recently COP21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and is preparing for COP26 Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021. It also is participating in the United Nations’ Climate Dialogues and Momentum for Change activities.
The rewriting of history and fact is connected- it turns out that it was women that put men on the moon- women who did the calculation, women who worked out the maths for computers, women who have done so much. Women even invented climate science and quite possibly maths itself as well as the technology for computers, nuclear physics and so much more- why are we written out of history?
At the moment, people are noticing that countries with women leaders tend to have a more cautious reaction to the pandemic and their case numbers generally lower. This has prompted renewed interest in women’s leadership and its potential for solving today’s existential crisis including the climate emergency. Their voices are often overshadowed by panels of ‘experts’ who are often men, and panels of all male experts are common in most parts of the world. This can be in spite of the fact that women may have more experience, skills or qualifications, they tend to be overlooked or offered a chairing role instead. Work is now on going to correct this in balance.
Mainstream Economics is predicated on Homo Economicus- that is rational Economic Man and his preferences and the narratives around it. Dame Marilyn Waring former politician and principal founder of feminist economics from New Zealand, described what the economy would look like ‘If Women Counted 1988’ in her seminal work.
Today, it is recognised that who controls the finances, and the money also has the power and decision making. This affects women throughout their life cycle from the lack of access to education affecting up 130 million girls globally – (Malala Yousafzai), right through to lower income, regardless of education levels and to lower resulting pensions, and poverty right into old age.
Further the narratives of who we are, and what we have been has also been dominated in the historical and archaeological disciplines where the leaders and arbiters of truth, experts and also the content and selection of what gets researched is also male in the important book -Women in Prehistory. (Ehrenberg 1989) and Rosalind Miles –(Women’s History of the World or who cooked the last supper 1988). Most recently even medical research and even seat belts, it transpired are tested mainly on male subjects as the ‘default or norm.’ (Caroline Creado -Prerez in Invisible Women 2019).
We need to take back control of these narratives as the earth and nature cannot wait. In the name of domestication, profit, wealth? and greed- we have even had control of child birth removed from us. So called nature based solutions and ecosystems servives are the latest attempt to remove anything natural from the world. Climate feminists need to reclaim these narratives and try and stop runnaway climate change before its too late and take their lead from the most famous climate activist of all -Greta!
About this Event
This event presents 3 different perspectives on where women and feminists are today.
The event will offer 3 keynote speeches and then all the speakers will come together in a reflective panel and discuss the implications of what they have said and how their work interacts with the points made by the others and the feminist writings, thoughts, history, research statistics and literature.
This event presents the challenges for women in society and the contemporary solutions and movements and the emergence of the necessity for womens leadership to meet the current existential crises of climate, biodiversity and economic collapse as the bedrock of todays survival solutions for humanity and planet.
Our speakers are leaders and outstanding in their field and offer real practical pathways and solutions to a sustainable and attractive future for us all. They all propose options which help to address the climate emergency in the context of feminist discourse and thought.
Programme for the Event
16.00- 16.15- CET time- connection and technical
Introduction and Rationale For the Event: Women economists, feminist perspectives and climate scientists: We discuss climate and the importance of women in climate and economics leadership, and a tribute to the woman who invented the science of climate change and discovered the role of carbon in the atmosphere and then was ignored and plagiarised!
Hosts Marlyn Hughes, Sukriti Anand, Miriam Kennet
Chair Irene Garcia- (Spain)
16.`15- 45 CET In conversation with Lynne Franks OBE : Setting the scene
Lynne is a trail blazer in the emergence of womens leadership power and styles. Empowering women and changing the world- how much difference one woman can make- is huge -we can change the world together.
Q and A
16.45-16.50 Short Break
16.50-17.20 CET Keynote speaker: Katrine Marcel- (Sweden) How 200 years of mainstream economics has continued to undermined women and their contribution, status, role and the truth. It has worked to impoverish women and prevented them taking their important role in solving the critical challenges of today- How mainstream economics has justified the complete domestication of nature and women and ultimately the denouement now taking place- the complete and utter destruction of both nature and women.
Author of the best selling -Who cooked Adam Smiths Dinner- translated into 30 languages- the true story of Adam Smith- the lie behind modern main stream economics and the disaster (s) it continues to lead to.
Q and A
17.20-17.25 Break
17.25-17.55 Keynote speaker Dr Sarah Parry -(TBC) Relations between gender and environment and the gender blindness in sustainability and climate research and literature and solutions.
Dr Parry introduces the issues of the relations between gender and environment. The majority of environmental social science research and writing in mainstream publications remains largely gender-blind. This puzzle propelled her to return to feminist works produced under the banner of ecofeminism, then on to more recent research focussed on gender-environment relations, and her research focuses on the gender-environment-household nexus.
Q and A
Chair: Leena Ahmed (UK)
17.55-18.05 Break
18.05- 18.30 Speaker Panel- Reflective Discussion about the implications of the speaker presentations and participants comments in the chat.
Chair: Irene Garcia (Spain)
18.30- 18.40 Next steps, and how to get involved.
Project Team leads a proposal for involvement and next steps. Adele Halttunen (Visio- Finland), Sukriti Anand (GEI India), Marlyn Hughes (Scotland and England), Miriam Kennet The Green Economics Institute), Dorothy Nulebega, (Uganda), Bianca- Madison- Vuletta ( Italy, Denmark, Croatia).
This event is a Webinar organised by the Green European Foundation, with the support of the GEI and the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation with our co leaders of the project Visio the Finnish Green Institute and other partners oikos in Belgium and Ztrefa Zeleni The Green Institute in Poland