The Work of Care and the Limits of Productivity

Maura Conlon-McIvor

Our wonderful Maura Conlon-McIvor - Certified Conversation Leader and now program facilitator - ran across this very interesting New York Times opinion piece "Let's Be Less Productive" which challenges the conventional wisdom that increasing productivity is the best driver of economic progress.

The author, Tim Jackson, does a very nice job of calling out how the work of care and craft is different from other kinds of work:

"The care and concern of one human being for another is a peculiar “commodity.” It can’t be stockpiled. It becomes degraded through trade. It isn’t delivered by machines. Its quality rests entirely on the attention paid by one person to another. Even to speak of reducing the time involved is to misunderstand its value."


Read the complete article here:  Let's Be Less Productive 


Thanks Maura!

Great visual on how USA compares on Paid Maternity Leave

Hi everyone,

Kim Otis (the Director of the Caring Economy Campaign) has passed along this terrific visual showing how the USA stacks up to other countries when it comes to paid maternity leave.

And here's the article that accompanies the graphic.  http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/05/24/489973/paid-maternity-leave-us/

Nothing like a good visual to bring home the message of how badly we in the US need to shift in the direction of a Caring Economy!

- Sara

Article on the Sharing Economy of Portland by Kristen McKee of Cohort J

Our own dear Kristen McKee of Cohort J recently published this article on the economy of sharing in Portland, OR - a great reminder of how much richness there is outside of the market economy!

http://www.shareable.net/blog/in-portland-you-can-have-all-you-need-by-sharing

Thanks for sharing the link, Kristen!

Consider Participating in the "Feminomics" Intensive this October

Dear Conversation Leaders,

This October, the Bioneers organization is hosting a day-long intensive program on "Feminomics" and our own Riane Eisler will be one of the speakers!

The Feminomics Intensive will happen in San Rafael, California on October 22nd.

This one-day intensive will explore how women, a gender lens, and valuing the well-being of people and planet can converge to inform new visions for finance, business, economics and culture. Gather with leading-edge thinkers and doers, innovators and practitioners across investment, business, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, finance, justice, policy and politics. We’ll learn, connect and share promising practices toward an inclusive vision that taps diverse voices, models and innovations to turn the tide toward a life-affirming and just economy and world.


Here are more details, and the link to register:
http://www.bioneers.org/conference/2012-schedule/intensives/feminomics-intensive

If you are in California, or can get there on October 22nd, I urge you to consider participating in this intensive.  It will be an exciting, powerful, and deeply productive day!

 - Sara

What do "Feminine Values" look like in Finance? Wonderful TED Talk

Thanks to Ellen Snortland for sharing this TED Talk by Halla Tomasdottir, who co-founded an investment banking company in Iceland based on feminine values.


http://www.ted.com/talks/halla_tomasdottir.html


Tomasdottir does a beautiful job of articulating why we must have both women and men represented in financial decision-making, and defining what feminine values look like in the context of the financial world.


And, you will love her story about the first female President of Iceland!


Enjoy!

ANNOUNCEMENT: ADDITIONS TO THE CL TOOLKIT

Sara Saltee, Program Director

Hey everyone,

Check out three new pages added to the CL Toolkit:

1.  Chapter Summaries Real Wealth of Nations - these one-pager pdfs are great resources for you and for participants in the conversations you host.

2.  PR Examples - You'll find a smattering of different PR examples shared by past Conversation Leaders.  We'd love to add some additional strong examples, so share them when you've got them!

3.  Spanish Language Materials - Marisa Iturbide (of Cohort B) translated the Women's Empowerment Slides and Script as well as some of the other class materials into spanish for us - and now they are posted in the Toolkit for your use.

This Toolkit is truly a co-created resource - please don't forget to share any additional tools you create!

Thanks,
Sara

More men entering jobs previously dominated by women

Cheers Conversation Leaders!

Here's a link to very interesting New York Times article shared by Allen Ament of Cohort K about the influx of men into previously woman-dominated fields.

As Allan says:  "If this is the start of an on-going trend, it may have major impact on both the pay scales of these professions as well as the perceived social and economic value they have."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/business/increasingly-men-seek-success-in-jobs-dominated-by-women.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

I was struck by two lines in the article:

"More than a few men said their new jobs had turned out to be far harder than they imagined."


And, in a passage about a man who chose to leave a lucrative data consulting job to become a nurse..  "...his starting salary will be about a third what he once earned, but database consulting does not typically earn hugs like the one Mr. Cook recently received from a girl after he took care of her premature baby sister. “It’s like, people get paid for doing this kind of stuff?” Mr. Cook said, choking up as he recounted the episode."


Isn't it fascinating that Mr. Cook's expression of emotional and spiritual satisfaction with his caring work is intertwined with his expression of amazement (and doubt?) about the fact that this work is also paid in material terms?


Will the growing ranks of men in caring professions be natural allies for women seeking to make the economic importance of this work more visible and valuable?   Will more equal representation of men and women in caring professions accelerate the cultural shift toward partnership values and raise the status and pay associated with care - as we come to view the work of care without our gender-role blinders on?


What do you think?