Following the establishment of the Japan Society for Gender Law last year, a new movement has also arisen in the field of Economics. On the global level, the International Association For Feminist Economics (IAFFE) was established in 1992. Through this association, many issues are being debated, such as the structural change in socio-economic systems, the effects of policies on women, globalization, and the economics of caring. I can still remember my excitement as I read about the activities and research conducted by the IAFFE, in Yoshiko Kuba's Economics and Gender: New Development of Feminist Economics. I was thrilled and realized, "This is where the economics for me will be created."
In Japan, the Feminist Economics Forum was established with the following goals: (1) to provide a space for the exchange of information between participants, (2) to accumulate the accomplishments made by research conducted within Japan, and (3) to acknowledge current trends in international research by organizations such as the IAFFE. Its inaugural symposium was held at Housei University on April 17th. Wanting to fully experience the energy of this exciting beginning, I travelled to Tokyo, where the event was taking place. The symposium was just as I had expected- the hall was packed full with participants who conducted reports and debates with great enthusiasm.
The main theme of the symposium was "Unbending Gender (or Genderizing) in Economics". The report topics and presenters were as follows: 1) "Blind Spots in Economics Criticism," by Yoshiko Kuba, 2) "Equal Payments, Living Wages and the 'Value' of Women's Work," by Shunko Ishiro, 3) "Unbending Gender in Macro Economics and Budget for Gender Equality - Challenges to Asymmetry in Development," by Yasuko Muramatsu, 4) "Note on Feminist Economics and Amartya Sen's Claim," by Ryo Yamamori, and 5)" Global Capitalism - Method of Analyzing Globalization from the Perspective of Feminist Political Economic Science," by Mariko Adachi. The reports covered a range of complex issues concerning the conditions and environment in which women work, all of which I could relate to my own lifestyle. In other words, they gave me a sense of how "I", as an individual, am directly related to international socio-economic changes on an international level.
Ms. Muramatsu's presentation in particular caught my interest. Unfortunately, it didn't go into specific details due to time limitations, but the presentation discussed how budgets for gender equality could be analyzed, on the basis of the idea of a circular flow of income which includes a gender perspective, such as the economics of caring.
The movement towards a Feminist Economics has just begun. What I would like to see is not only the inclusion of 'a gender studies perspective' to the existing field of economics, but the emergence of a fundamentally new economics that will directly theorize the experience of 'I', the individual, on a more practical and personal level.
(Osaka Women's University : Hori, Kumi)