Tired old narratives such as care is not ‘real’ work need to be challenged. Sanika Sawant, Alex Bush, Anam Parvez Butt, Blandina Bobson, Silvia Galandini and Regis Mtutu on new Oxfam research from Kenya, Zimbabwe and the UK that tested new narratives with exciting potential to build government and public support for care, carers and informal workers.
The Gross Domestic Problem: What Would A New Economic Measure That Values Women and Climate Look Like?
The fixation with measuring progress by Gross Domestic Product leads straight to gender injustice, austerity and environmental ruin. Anam Parvez Butt and Alex Bush introduce a new Oxfam discussion paper that aims to encourage debate about alternative metrics, and calls on advocates to join the “Beyond GDP” movement Illustration by Alex Bush Since its official adoption at the Bretton Woods …
How can we tell a new story that boosts support for all care and carers?
The millions of paid and unpaid carers across the UK – including parents and guardians of children, social care and childcare workers, and unpaid carers for disabled, ill and elderly people – desperately need a new deal. Silvia Galandini, Anam Parvez (both Oxfam GB) and Nick Gadsby (The Answer) introduce a new toolkit that can help build public pressure for change, by constructing a fresh and compelling narrative about the value of all care.
It’s time for the UK to start caring about its carers
Millions of people provide essential paid and unpaid care such as support for children, disabled, ill and older people. Yet their huge contribution contrasts starkly with threadbare state support for their work. Anam Parvez and Silvia Galandini look at the high price carers, and especially women, pay for society undervaluing care – and the policies we need to fix our broken care infrastructure.
How can we tackle the pain austerity inflicts on women? Start by really seeing and valuing the work they do
As Oxfam releases a new report highlighting austerity as a form of gender-based violence, Anam Parvez and Clare Coffey identify three deep-rooted attitudes at the root of this economic violence, including the idea that the work women do isn’t real work
Girls Not Brides – weaving the ‘evidence quilt’ for gender transformative law reform
Positive prospects amid the pandemic Girls have been given much reason to hope in the Philippines. This November, a historic first, the Senate unanimously approved the Girls Not Brides bill, which proposes to criminalize child marriage. Now the House of Representatives must take this life-saving measure across the finish line before the last step – a presidential veto or approval. There are an estimated 726,000 child brides in the Philippines, making it the 12th highest in the world for child marriage in terms of …
Making care count: Valuing work and wellbeing over wealth
We are heading into increasingly stormy times. Times when caring for each other will become more critical and challenging. By 2025, economies will be in crisis response mode, coping with 2.4 billion people living in areas without enough water. By 2030, an additional 100 million older people and a further 100 million children between 6-14 years of age will need …
5 Top Tips for Designing Research to change Social Norms on Gender (or anything else)
Anam Parvez Butt is a Gender Justice Research Lead in the research team at Oxfam GB. Gopika Bashi is the Asia Campaigner for the Enough Campaign at Oxfam International.
How to integrate gender in research planning
Anam Parvez Butt and Irene Guijt from Oxfam’s research team introduce our latest research guidelines for development practitioners. High quality research is critical for evidence-informed advocacy and development programming. But research cannot be high quality if it is gender blind. For Oxfam, ‘putting women at the heart of everything we do’ is only a wish unless practical action follows. Our …
Feminist solutions to man-made economic inequality
Francesca Rhodes, Gender Policy Advisor, Man-Kwun Chan, Influencing Advisor, Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care, and Anam Parvez Butt, Gender Justice Research Lead at Oxfam GB outline some of the key ways public spending and taxation could reduce gender inequality. In the words of feminist activist, Paula Varela: ‘Women… have the majority of the precarious jobs, and we perform the overwhelming …