Tea Talks: The Sustainable Economy is the Feminist Economy

Dr. Olivia R. Williams, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies, will present the Tea Talk "The Sustainable Economy is the Feminist Economy: How the Decommodification of Land Through Community Land Trusts Supports Unpaid Feminized Work."

Description: Scholars of feminist economics and feminist geography have long noted the exclusion and devaluation of women’s labor in formal capitalist markets. Care work, volunteer work, community work, and household work, for example, tend to be primarily done by women without compensation. However, the question of how to value or destigmatize feminized unpaid and underpaid labor remains an open one.

Sustainable economic models (based on slow growth, no growth, or de-growth) offer one avenue for supporting feminized work without simply commoditizing it further. A study of community land trusts illustrates how the partial decommodification of land supports low-income people who wish to spend less time at traditional jobs and more time on unpaid labor, like volunteering and caring for children.