Women can make the world better – Need for a Paradigm Shift in Economics: Valuing Women’s Work and Local Community Solutions | 28 October 2023 | UPSC Daily Editorial Analysis

What's the article about?

• It talks about the need for a paradigm shift in economics, which has long been chronicled through a male lens, emphasizing the contributions of men and their viewpoints.

Relevance:

• GS1: Role of Women and Women’s Organization
• Essay

Context:

• The article discusses the need for a paradigm shift in economics, which has long been chronicled through a male lens, emphasizing the contributions of men and their viewpoints.
• The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to 90 men since 1969 and just three women.
• The article highlights the work of Claudia Goldin, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2023 for her work explaining why women earn less money than men even when they do the same work.
• The article also discusses the future of work and India, patterns of economic growth, and the need to invest more in care-giving services.
• The article concludes by discussing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the need for a paradigm shift in economics.

Analysis:

• Valuing Women's Work:
  • The article argues that women's work in the family contributes to the well-being of humans in society, but it does not add to the growth of the economy and GDP.
  • Ms. Goldin's research reveals that women, who also attend to the caring work required for families at home, are considered less valuable in economic enterprises because they cannot commit to continuously working full time for their employers, which men can.
  • The article highlights the need to value care-giving work, which is not valued in the money economy.
  • The millions of women providing domestic services, and millions more who are providing care in communities as ASHA workers (Accredited Social Health Activist) and anganwadi workers in primary health and education, are very poorly paid.
• Future of Work and India:
  • The article discusses how patterns of economic growth have shifted globally, and long-term employment in industrial forms of establishments is becoming harder to find even in rich countries.
  • More employment is being generated now in the gig economy and the informal sector. Even in large industrial establishments, jobs are on short-term contracts.
  • These trends in the future of work are a special challenge for India, which has the largest numbers of youth in the world. They are finding fewer opportunities for dignified work with adequate income and social security even though the Indian economy is among the fastest growing in the world.
  • Moreover, India, which ranks 132 out of 191 countries in human development, needs to invest more in care-giving services.
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
  • The article discusses the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to be achieved by 2030, which cover a range of environmental, social, and economic problems that must be solved simultaneously to make progress more inclusive and sustainable.
  • The G-20 has assessed that, at the midway point to 2030, the global progress on SDGs is off-track with only 12% of targets on track.
  • The article argues that complex problems must be solved bottom up, not top down. Local systems solutions cooperatively developed by communities are the only way the goals of the SDGs can be achieved.
• Paradigm Shift in Economics:
  • The article argues that a paradigm change is required in economics. The masculine view of the economy is a production machine driven by competition.
  • A feminine view of the economy is a society of human beings who care. Mainstream economics, so far dominated by men, has created a Tragedy of the Commons.
  • The article highlights the work of Nobel Laureate Ostrom, who showed how local communities, often with women at their center, cooperatively govern their local resources equitably and sustainably.
  • Ms. Ostrom proposed a different paradigm, based on cooperation, equity, and sustainability, for realizing the Promise of the Commons, which is the urgent need of this millennium. 

Way Forward:

• The article concludes by arguing that the global, male-dominated, money-driven system of institutions of business and society needs an overhaul. Women must be given freedom, not just to be promoted within male-dominated institutions, but rather to shape better, family-spirited institutions for governance. Moreover, local communities must be given more powers for designing and implementing inclusive and sustainable solutions to their problems.