Economics and business as if caring matters: investing in our future

Abstract

Purpose -In this time of disequilibrium, old approaches are not capable of meeting our growing challenges. In addition to worrying about customers, employees, products, and services, managers and business owners have to consider matters such as globalization, the environment, instant communications, and technologies once only imagined in science fiction. Not surprisingly, there is a growing perception that we need new ways of thinking about business, economics, and society. The aim of this paper is to address this urgent matter. Design/methodology/approach -This paper addresses this urgent matter through the lens of an underlying theme of this issue: "care is worthy of investment, policy, and practice because it delivers both measurable results and a more humane world". Findings -Offering a perspective that goes beyond the capitalism vs socialism debate, it shows that the failure to recognize the economic value of the work of caring and caregiving has been a major obstacle to more equitable and sustainable ways of living and making a living. Practical implications -It proposes measures of economic health that take into account the value of care, as well as the large, still generally ignored, contributions of women, who do most of the care work in both market and nonmarket economic sectors. Social implications -It places economic valuations in their social context from the perspective of two new social categories: the partnership system and the domination system, revealing the imbalanced gendered values inherent in the latter. Originality/value -It shows the financial value of caring and proposes economic inventionseconomic measurements, policies, and practices -that support caring for people, starting in early childhood, as well as caring for our natural environment.

Women and disability: The role of feminist psychology.

“…International migration can be problematic for women who forgo or limit financial opportunities that can be gained through providing personal assistance, often as domestic workers, in wealthier nations, while trying to provide personal assistance to family members or other community members in their home countries (Baldassar & Wilding, 2014); the money earned is necessary for care, if not actual survival, of family members, although the absence of the woman can easily deprive the family member(s) of muchneeded personal assistance. Eisler (2013) explored the negative economic impact, at family, community, national, and global levels, of financially undersupporting caregiving. It is important to provide caregiver respite, especially early in the caregiving journey, to reduce stress in the relationship (Rose, Noelker, & Kagan, 2015), although this can strain family finances (Aggar, Ronaldson, & Cameron, 2014).…”