Watch: COVID, care and wellbeing: What do we really value?

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has put the brakes on Australia’s paid market economy, our unpaid non-market economy – the cooking, cleaning and caring taking place within Australians’ households – is still going strong.

Furthermore, the factors that truly matter for wellbeing have come into sharper focus as the crisis unfolds. To a large extent, it’s women who are performing the essential frontline jobs and the unpaid caring roles that are keeping society functioning during this time.

Our panel will explore how economists think about wellbeing. Should we place a higher value on the care work and the non-market activities that are essential for a well-functioning society? If yes, how this might be practically achieved? And, if the COVID crisis doesn’t prompt a reassessment of the value of care and the contribution of women’s work, what will?

Join panellists Catherine Fox (journalist and author), Dr Suzy Morrissey (University of Auckland Public Policy Institute), Emma Dawson (Per Capita), and Associate Professor Julie Smith (ANU). The panel discussion will be moderated by WEN National Chair Dr Leonora Risse (RMIT University and Harvard Kennedy School).

This online event is brought to you by the Queensland branch of the Women in Economics Network, as part of the Economic Society of Australia and Women in Economics Network’s joint national webinar program.

Details

 About our Speakers

		Catherine Fox, Director of Diversity at Women & Leadership Australia, is a leading commentator on women and the workforce, an award-winning journalist, author and presenter. During a long career with the Financial Review, she edited several sections of the newspaper, and wrote the Corporate Woman column; and she has published five books, including “Stop Fixing Women” which along with her journalism was awarded the 2017 Walkley Award for Women’s Leadership in Media. Her most recent book “Women Kind” (with co-author Kirstin Ferguson) was launched in 2018 and examines how female solidarity and support is rebooting the global women’s movement. Catherine helped establish the annual Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Awards in 2012 and was named a Woman of Influence in 2018; she is an expert adviser to the Australian Defence Force, sits on the Australian Women Donors Network board, and is co-founder of the Sydney Women’s Giving Circle.
		Dr Suzy Morrissey (University of Auckland) is a gender specialist with a background in tax and policy. A Chartered Accountant (FCA) her early career was spent a number of professional services firms in Melbourne and Christchurch. Suzy has worked in policy roles for many years, and was a Principal Advisor at NZ Treasury, where she worked on the Living Standards Framework (used as the basis for New Zealand’s ‘Wellbeing Budget’ in 2019). Suzy’s PhD from Victoria University of Welling examined paid parental leave in New Zealand and Norway and she has also published on gender budgeting. She is passionate about recognising women’s contributions and concerns.
		Emma Dawson is the Executive Director of Per Capita. Formerly, she was a senior advisor on Digital Inclusion at Telstra, and a senior policy advisor in the Rudd and Gillard governments.  She has published articles and opinion pieces on a wide range of public policy issues and is a regular panellist on The Drum on ABC TV. Emma’s research interests are gender equality and women’s rights, economic inequality, media and communications, multiculturalism, ageing and disability. She is the co-author of Measure for Measure: gender equality in Australia, published in March 2020.  Emma holds a BA with First Class Honours from LaTrobe University and an MA with Distinction from Monash. She sits on the board of the Prader-Willi Research Foundation Australia and is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
		Honorary Associate Professor Julie Smith is an ARC Future Fellow at the Research School of Population Health, ANU. She is also a Fellow of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. Her research focusses on gender analysis, taxation policy, and economic aspects of breastfeeding. She has been an expert advisor to the World Health Organization and the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Australian Department of Health, and to national and international NGOs. Previously, she was a senior economist in the Australian and New Zealand Treasuries and at the Parliamentary Research Service in Canberra.
		Dr Leonora Risse is a Lecturer in Economics at RMIT University, and a 2019-2020 Fellow with the ‘Women and Public Policy Program’ in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is one of the co-founders of the Women in Economics Network in Australia, and currently serves as the WEN National Chair. Leonora earned her PhD in Economics from the University of Queensland in 2008, and previously worked as a Senior Research Economist for the Australian Government’s Productivity Commission. Her areas of research encompass: gender differentials in the labour market; the use of psychology in economic analysis; measuring wellbeing and disadvantage; demographic economics; the economics of education and human capital; and efficiency analysis.

Registration and Joining the Webinar

To register please book online below.  The link to join this webinar will be included in your auto-generated invoice email – please look out for this and keep it safe until the webinar is due to be broadcast.  Note, these emails sometimes get caught in spam folders.

REGISTER NOW

Regards
Women in Economics Network