Changing The Rules Of The Game: Work, Values, And Our Future
©1998 Riane Eisler
The concepts in this article are the basis for the Alliance for a Caring Economy founded by Riane Eisler in 1998. The Alliance is a joint project of the Center for Partnership Studies and the Global Futures Foundationand is headquarted at the Global Futures Foundation in Sacramento. The Alliance consists of a network of individuals and organizations from many sectors, including the socially responsibile business sector.
In these rapidly changing times, how can we pave the way for a sustainable - and better - future for our children? What is needed for a healthy environment, a well-functioning economy, and an educational system that prepares young people for the challenges they face? How can we support caring families and communities and create a more peaceful and equitable world?
The shift from industrial to postindustrial society involves both crisis and opportunity. The crisis is the social and economic upheaval that inevitably accompanies major technological phase shifts. The opportunity is that it is precisely during periods of disequilibrium that fundamental change is possible -if we have a clear picture of the foundational problems.
Just as the industrial revolution eliminated many back-breaking agricultural jobs, the postindustrial revolution is eliminating many mind-numbing industrial jobs. This is creating job dislocation and social unrest. But it also opens the door for a reexamination and redefinition of productive work.
We can anticipate that the industrial job base will shrink as radically as the agricultural job base shrank earlier from employing a majority of workers to less than five percent today. The consequences, not only in unemployment and underemployment but in a less financially secure consumer base, are already beginning to be felt. Many well-paying jobs, such as middle management positions, are disappearing. "Blue collar" jobs in factories, as well as "white collar" jobs, such those of telephone operators and receptionists, are being phased out by automation.
Replacement jobs primarily require advanced degrees or high technology skills, otherwise they are at low wage levels, often part-time and without benefits. The loss of jobs is in part due to the export of manufacturing jobs to nations with cheap labor. But as we move to robotics, the number of jobs in both the developed and developing world will continue to shrink.
Present economic models offer no solutions for this problem. Indeed, present economic systems are proving insufficient to solve most of our escalating global problems - from environmental pollution and exponential population growth to hunger, poverty, and growing social dislocation.
Many of these problems are actually exacerbated by present rules of the game. For example, in both free market and centrally planned economies, environmental conditions are deteriorating due to the over-exploitation of nature. Under present economic rules, we see the worldwide polarization of wealth and the massive suffering caused by "structural adjustment" and other policies promoted under the aegis of globalizing the economy. The violence of fundamentalist and other groups caught in the maelstrom of rapid technological and economic change is still another signpost of trouble, as is the alienation and rudderlessness of young people worldwide.
To solve these problems, we urgently need new economic models, rules, and policies. As jobs are phased out by new technologies, what should be included in definitions of productive work? What is needed for us to maintain a clean and healthy environment? What kinds of policies will promote the high quality human capital required for the postindustrial workplace? How can we build a more equitable and humane economic system? What kind of work should, or should not, be valued?
Work and the Quality of Life
Present economic models and rules fail to recognize the economic value of the socially and environmentally essential work of caring and caretaking. Marx wrote about the alienation of labor. I have in the course of my research come to see that the alienation of caring and caretaking labor is the hidden mass of the iceberg of which many of our problems are only the tip.
This alienation of caring and caretaking labor has always had extremely negative effects. As David Korten notes, "when the social capital of caring relations is depleted, family and community life fall into disarray." Because caring work is often valued at zero by the economy, with the growing emphasis on "economic efficiency" we are today getting less and less of it. Health care, child care, elder care, even the sense of caring and community that we used to associate with going to the corner store or coffee shop, are systematically being squeezed out of our lives so they can be provided in the most efficient, antiseptic, functional way possible - at least until the social costs grow so high that they spill over and force their way into the economy, in the form of delinquency, crime, homelessness, mental illness, and social malaise.
Today caring and caretaking work is more urgently needed than ever before. The postindustrial information economy requires the production of high quality human capital - the ability to learn, relate, be productive and creative.
Findings from psychology, and more recently neurobiology, show that the quality of human capital is, to a much greater extent than has been recognized, shaped by early childrearing: by the caring work of childcare and early childhood education.
Evidence indicates that preventing a shortage of the highly skilled workers needed for the postindustrial workplace may depend in large part on supporting a nurturing environment for our children. It is during the first three years of life that neural pathways are laid, largely determining whether or not we are venturesome and creative, whether we can work with peers or only take orders from above, and whether or not we are able to resolve conflicts nonviolently. It is during these years that the quality of care for children, whether at home or in childcare centers, whether by women or by men, can make the difference.
Maintaining a clean and healthy environment may in our hightechnology age be a survival requisite. Nonetheless, this caretaking work of environmental housekeeping has also not been valued as "work,"or, like caring for children, has been viewed as "only women's work,"and accordingly devalued.
There is no logical reason that work stereotypically thought of as women's work should be given lower economic value. For example, why should plumbers (still primarily men) be paid more than workers in childcare centers (still primarily women)? Taking care of children is much more important than taking care of leaky pipes. It involves many more responsibilities and skills than plumbing, and has far more important long-range social and economic consequences.
This irrational devaluation of the most socially essential work the work without which we would not survive is our inheritance from a time when our society oriented far more closely to what I have called a dominator model. This is a social and economic organization based on rigid rankings of domination be it man over woman, man over man, or nation over nation. A mainstay of this model, as it historically developed, was the ranking of the male half of humanity over the female half. This led to the automatic valuing of men and anything stereotypically associated with men and masculinity over women and anything stereotypically considered feminine.
Stereotypes of masculinity and femininity do not have anything to do with innate male or female traits. Men can do the "women's work" of caring for children, and some men do this better than some women. Women can do "men's work," be it as welders, politicians, or priests, and sometimes do it better than men.
But the higher valuing of activities stereotypically associated with men is a hidden system of valuations deeply embedded in the still prevailing economic rules and models.
The shift to a postindustrial economy opens a window of opportunity to improve the lives of women, men, and children worldwide through new economic rules, models, and policies that recognize that caring for children and our environment is the most foundationally productive work - whether it is done by women or men.
These economic rules, models, and policies will recognize the real value of the socially essential work of caring for children and the elderly, keeping our families healthy, and maintaining a clean and healthy environment. They will do this in both the market and nonmarket sectors of the economy. This will result in the higher valuing of caring and caretaking in our workplaces, communities, and homes - and thus to greater economic equity and more satisfying and fulfilling lives for us all
The Need for Partnership Economic Inventions
All economic institutions - from stock exchanges to banks and social security - are human inventions. Some, such as parental leave and stock option plans have improved our lives. Others, such as slavery and sweatshops have brought untold misery.
The point is that economic models, rules, and policies are not governed by unalterable "laws of economics" but by human ideas and actions.
Economic inventions that recognize the value of caring and caretaking will facilitate the ongoing transition toward what I call partnership economics. This is a new economic paradigm that incorporates the best aspects of both capitalism and socialism but goes much further, supporting and rewarding caring and ethical human relations as well as consciousness of and respect for our natural habitat.
Economic systems can and do change witness the historic changes from feudalism to capitalism. A hundred years ago, in the era of "robber-baron" capitalism, the economic alternative of communism was also explored. One of the objectives was a more humane and caring system. But the problem of the alienation of caring labor was not addressed - and unjust and ineffective economies such as those of the Soviet Union and elsewhere were the result.
If free-market economies do not address this underlying problem and evolve into a form which intrinsically recognizes the value of caring and caretaking, authoritarian and totalitarian "economic solutions" will emerge once again.
At this point, the hidden system of classifications and valuations based on gender that underlies our economy is still firmly entrenched. In the workplace, the push for "comparable worth" legislation to achieve economic parity in professions such as childcare, nursing, and teaching that are primarily female has achieved minimal success. Despite all the rhetoric, caring and caretaking work in the home is assigned no real economic value. Hence, it is still harder to get men to assume equal responsibility for housework and childcare than it even is for women to get into professions that until recently were exclusive male preserves.
Nonetheless, there is growing recognition of the value of caring and caretaking for social and environmental health in a number of social and political trends today. For example:
Most industrialized countries provide universal healthcare as an investment in their human capital.
- Parental leave for both mothers and fathers and flexible work options are becoming more prevalent, as are parenting classes, particularly for young parents.
- Corporations are beginning to take the social and environmental concerns of their employees, shareholders, and the communities in which they operate into account in decision-making.
- Caretaking work is recognized as economically valuable by local currency systems that are being used to exchange activities and services (bypassing national monetary systems) in a growing number of communities in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
- In the Scandinavian world, as well as in France, Germany, New Zealand, and other industrialized nations, there are government subsidies for childcare (not just tax credits) as wells as paid parental leave and community service job programs for unemployed youths.
As reported in the United Nations annual Human Development Reports, the health of communities is beginning to be measured based on maternal and infant mortality, education, the environment, and a host of other factors that are not typically quantified, in recognition of the fact that factors such as GDP, tax revenue, and the number of jobs are not the only inputs to quality of life.
Many people realize that these policies and programs are beneficial to the community, to families and individuals, and to a company's bottom line. However, add-ons are not enough. Effectively dealing with our global problems requires a complex of interrelated changes in economic measurements, institutions, and rules.
Transforming our system of economic models, rules, and policies will take time. However, there are changes we can begin to work on right away:
- Developing and testing new economic inventions that recognize the value of caring and caretaking
- Changing our economic measurements to include this work
- Revising property laws, customs, and practices that discriminate against women
- Expanding women's roles in policy-making
Working with the Alliance for a Caring Economy to promote the dissemination of partnership economic inventions that recognize the value of caring and caretaking
Economic Inventions that Recognize the Value of Caring and Caretaking Work
In simple economic terms, creating an economic system that recognizes the value of caring and caretaking will save billions of dollars. In human terms, the benefits will be much greater. Economic inventions that recognize and reward the most socially essential work will give us the foundations on which a more sustainable, equitable, and humane socio-economic system can rest.
We clearly need a market economy that adequately values the caring professions in which women are largely concentrated. A key example here is work in childcare centers. There is also the work of counselors, nursery school, kindergarten, primary school teachers, and others dealing with both children and their parents.
We also urgently need a battery of economic inventions that recognize the value of the socially essential work of caring and caretaking in the nonmarket economy.
For example, we have institutionalized programs of training for soldiers to teach them to effectively take life as well as pensions for them. These economic inventions are products of dominator economics, the economics of a system where armed force, conquest, and domination have been highly valued. By contrast, we have no institutionalized programs to assure that women and men train and prepare themselves to effectively care for children - even though we have scientific evidence of the critical importance of the first three years for the development of the human capital essential for today's economy. We also have no pensions for these essential activities even though, in conjunction with childcare training, such pensions would be viable economic inventions that encourage and support the quality of childcare urgently needed not only from an economic, but a human perspective.
I want to emphasize that in conjunction with strong family planning programs such economic inventions will not promote childbirth. On the contrary, studies show that sex education classes that include family planning information as well as parenting classes in schools actually reduce teenage pregnancies. Nor have Scandinavian experiences with childcare allowances led to high birthrates.
As I write in Tomorrow's Children: Partnership Education for the 21st Century, early training in the caring arts needs to be a central focus of schooling. This would serve multiple purposes from helping to prevent teen delinquency and pregnancy to promoting teamwork, mutual support, and equity. It would ensure that we have the quality of human capital required for the postindustrial economy. Above all, it would be an important cornerstone for a more equitable economic system worldwide: one where caring and caretaking are integral to all economic institutions and the female half of humanity no longer suffers from economic discrimination.
In recognition that much of what has been considered productive work will gradually be phased out by new technologies in both agriculture and manufacturing, a negative income tax was proposed by the conservative economist Milton Friedman and a guaranteed annual income was proposed by the liberal economist Robert Theobald. These measures, however, would just entail doling out money to the poor to prevent violence and the collapse of social and economic infrastructures. This approach is neither effective nor productive much less satisfying, as it will not enable recipients to feel that they are doing meaningful work and are contributing something of importance.
Partnership economic inventions are a viable alternative.
New Economic Measurements
Another key element in the move toward partnership economics is a new, more accurate system of economic bookkeeping. If the bookeeping methods of a business are not accurate, the business will not succeed. In the same way, economic measurements that fail to include the value of caring and caretaking, as well as the costs of not valuing this work, provide a false picture of economic productivity.
What we label productive work is today in large part determined by measures such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and GNP (Gross National Product), which do not include the unpaid work primarily performed by women in the "informal" economy, be it in their homes or in their communities as volunteers. This omission has in recent years been forcefully critiqued (for example, in Marilyn Waring's groundbreaking book If Women Counted and in the Center for Partnership Studies' publication Women, Men, and The Global Quality of Life written by this author in collaboration with the social psychologist David Loye and the sociologist Kari Norgaard.)
There is some movement toward substituting Quality of Life Measures for GDP and GNP. One reason is that the latter fail to reflect how the mass of people live in a country, only showing whether it is rich or poor without any data on distribution. Another reason is that GDP and GNP fail to reflect the environmental costs of "productivity."
But these new measures will not be adequate unless they include gender-specific data and reflect the invisible economic contributions of women. Gender-inclusive Quality of Life Measures, proposed in If Women Counted and in Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, are needed to make the socially and economically essential "women's work" of human caretaking and maintaining a clean and healthy family environment visible in systems of national and international accounting. Such changes in accounting will in turn encourage development of new rules of the game that recognize the value of activities that create high quality human capital and promote environmental health versus environmental pollution, despoliation, and destruction (which irrationally, along with the costs of measures to repair their damage, are still often included on the plus side of economic measures today).
Nondiscriminatory Property Laws, Customs, and Practices
Laws that deprive members of a society from the right to own property are today recognized as violations of human rights. Nonetheless, international human rights agencies give practically no attention to the fact that in large world regions (for example, much of Africa and Southern Asia) women are by law and/or custom deprived of the right to own property (See for example, Bina Agarwal's A Field of One's Own and the journal Women's International Network News).
This discrimination is sometimes justified on the grounds that men economically provide for women. While this may be the ideal, it is often not the reality. Once again, such laws and customs reflect the devaluation of women's enormous economic contributions: not only the stereotypically "feminine" work of caring for children and the elderly, but in many regions also the subsistence farming, hauling of firewood and water, and other activities essential to keep families and whole communities alive that women traditionally perform.
Supporting women's groups working for changes in laws (and thus norms and customs) is another way of supporting economic inventions that recognize the value of caring and caretaking work. An international campaign to support this effort by progressive nongovernmental organizations, including national and international women's, children's, and human rights organizations, can greatly accelerate this process.
Policy-Making
If we are to change economic policies in ways that recognize the real value of work stereotypically considered women's work, women need to play a greater role in the formulation of both government and business policies. It is significant that women such as Bina Agarwal, Nirmala Banerjee, Barbara Bergmann, Marianne Ferber, Hazel Henderson, Devaki Jain, Julie Nelson, Hilkka Pietila, Gita Sen, Vandana Sheva, Marilyn Waring, and many others including this author have been strong voices for new economic rules of the game.
This is not to say men also have not played an important part; for example, Tashi Kiuchi, David Korten, Michael Lerner, Manfred Max-Neef, Robert Reich, Karl-Henrick Robert, and Amartya Sen have been leaders in calling for ecologically responsible and equitable government policies. They recognize that these policies are essential if we are to develop, and implement, the new economic rules appropriate for partnership economics; for example, new ways of doing business and new criteria for corporate charters that require social and environmental accountability of corporations worldwide.
However, unless women have a say in major economic and political decision-making bodies and meetings, the focus will not be on the core component of partnership economics that recognizes the value of the stereotypical women's work of caring and caretaking. As illustrated by the Scandinaviaan world, only as women rise in status through entry into positions of social governance do stereotypically feminine qualities such as caring and nonviolence also attain social governance as men no longer feel that embracing these is an "unmanly" loss of status.
Alliance for a Caring Economy (ACE)
The Alliance for a Caring Economy (ACE) was inititated by the Center for Partnership Studies, in cooperation with the Global Futures Foundation. ACE is now housed at GFF (see contact information at the end of this article). A number of other organizations have joined ACE as Partner Organizations, including the Social Venture Network, Co-op America, the Rainforest Action Network, the World Business Academy, the Shared Capitalism Institute, the Cultural Environment Movement, Bioneers, Tikkun, and Youth for Environmental Sanity.
The goal of the Alliance is to promote fundamental changes to our economic system, redefining what is productive work by identifying, developing, testing, and disseminating economic inventions that recognize and reward the value of caring and caretaking work in both the market and nonmarket sectors of the economy.
The Alliance for a Caring Economy will focus on six key areas:
- children
- healthy individuals, families, and communities
- business and the workplace
- gender equity
- the natural environment
- caring economic synthesis
It will:
- Build a broad international network of individuals and organizations committed to promoting the recognition and rewarding of caring and caretaking work.
- Collect information through research and networking on what is already happening to give economic value to caring and caretaking.
- Develop a web page to provide a central focus point for information and outreach.
- Bring together innovative thinkers and practitioners to conceptualize economic inventions through focus groups, web discussions, conferences, and other formats.
- Provide a forum for new ideas and initiatives, support pilot projects, and provide a framework for testing and disseminating new programs and policies.
Offer education through articles, popular booklets, policy reports, media campaigns, and other formats targeted to key organizations, decision-makers, and the general public.
In addition to developing the web page, the Alliance will focus on four projects during its first two years:
Data-Base and Internet Conference: We will organize an Internet conference to identify anddevelop economic inventions that recognize the value of caring and caretaking. Through this virtual conference we will develop a catalogue of economic inventions that can be further refined, researched, developed, and promoted.
Educational Booklets: We will prepare a series booklets (hard copy and Internet versions] which will raise awareness of the importance of recognizing and rewarding the value of caring and caretaking, and present examples of what can be done at the home, community, business, and national levels.
Research and Project Development: Through the Internet conference and ongoing research, we will identify existing and new examples of economic inventions in the areas of business, community/grass roots, and national policy. Within each area, we will describe economic inventions, analyze policies and programs, and develop an implementation guide to assist organizations that would like to implement the examples. These guides will be action-oriented, focusing on how to change policy and implement new policies.
Conference: We will conduct a traditional 2-day conference on economic inventions that recognize the value of caring and caretaking. Several hundred participants will look at current economic models and rules of the game from the perspective briefly articulated in this paper; examine what is congruent with partnership economics and what needs to be replaced, and explore new economic models and rules of the game drawing from work in progress by innovative thinkers.
In addition, focus groups will bring together small groups of people from a variety of backgrounds, including business leaders, academics, homemakers, educators, childcare workers, government officials, health professionals, and representatives of women's, environmental, faith-based, political actions, and other groups, to both brainstorm and network, thereby disseminating information and education and shifting the focus of economic discourse to foundational issues.
The Alliance is taking a practical and systemic approach to identify what is already happening, connect groups conducting similar projects, identify new policy ideas, and work with groups that are influencing national and international policy. We will involve, build on, and help coalesce the range of related activities occurring around the world, drawing from examples from nature, energy policy, market-based laws, local currencies, indigenous cultures, and Scandinavian countries, among others.
The Costs and Benefits
The costs of the first steps toward the development of partnership economic inventions are minimal compared to the potential benefits. Indeed, the costs are infinitesimal compared to the potential cost to us all in both the so-called developed and developing world if we do not creatively address the challenges and opportunities of this time of rapid technological, social, and environmental change and devise ways to recognize and reward the value of caring and caretaking work.
Just one example is the enormous government and social cost associated with child abuse and neglect, and their frequent corollary, juvenile and, later, adult crime. Unless we creatively intervene, these costs will exponentially increase due to both population growth and the economic and social dislocations stemming from economic globalization and the gradual phasing out of much that was in agrarian and industrial economies considered productive work. Similarly, the cost of failing to develop economic instruments that recognize the value of environmental housekeeping will continue to rise exponentially unless we change the rules of the economic game.
To succeed, we need your support and participation. By this we mean your financial support and your creativity, experience, ideas, and active involvement in spreading this new perspective.
If you are interested in partnering in this important enterprisefor example, by bringing your organization into the Alliance for a Caring Economy, making a financial contribution, co- sponsoring a conference or focus group, or contributing to our research and data gathering effortsplease contact ACE Co-Director Wendy Pratt at Alliance for a Caring Economy, c/o the Global Futures Foundation (please see address at the end of the article.
This paper is based on Dr. Eisler's book in progress on Partnership Economics. For earlier discussions, see Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life (available from the Center for Partnership Studies); chapters 12 and 13 of The Chalice and the Blade; chapters 17 and 18 of Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body; and Dr. Eisler's articles highlighting the implications of the hidden system of gender valuations for environmentally conscious and progressive government and business policies (also available from the Center for Partnership Studies).
CommentI have an invention record [since/25/7/2000/ register N.5865/in syria] of electrical system installallation for an electric car. Its load is one ton and we try to make the load greater. The invention supplies the electric-car with its need of electricity permanently day and night during parking and driving. Use of the ysystem, could produced environmentally friendly electric cars with the same specifications of today's conventional cars.
Free from exhaust gas with no need for oil or fuel. There is no need to stop car for battery recharging, which recharges automatically. This system can be used in the production of electric generators with different power .we ready to agreement with you ,and to execute invention at your laboratories or in my laboratories. because I have not enough money.The invention depend on electro-magnetic capacity addition moment of inertia [two parts{ mechanical part} ,{electrical part}]
the invention consist of new electric - charger[my design ] and two groups of batteries.
batteries.group / A / batteries. group / B /
how it work ( general view ) ?
when / A /battery group supply the electric engine of car by the electric .
in the same time the / B / in charging . when / A / be empty , the / B / will be supplying the electric engine of car by the electric , and / A / in charging.
the employ materials [iron,copper,plastic] my purpose from these invention to make the air is clean ,[in other apply possible use it to provide the factories by its electric[ use it in the stationary case easier than the mobile case] if we execute the invention possible say good-by smoke and pollution, possible you sent watcher to see and finance,
to explain the invention we need to long meeting because it not easy. unable to explain it by writing in any way we use in it the gravity law ,the electro-magnetic capacity ,moment of inertia ,levers laws ,we consume the electric power and gravity power to produce electric quantity more than consumed electric power and we consume all the used gravity power ,as you know the gravity power is free I can not explain more.
designer
ENG.Amir kara fallah-syria
CommentHow i may contact admin this site? I have a question.
iijiivei
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