During this two-day event, we will discuss the links between care and inequalities across time and space, the struggles of different actors to valorize care, as well as the successes and challenges of public policies already implemented in the region.
Brazil has assumed the presidency of the G20 in 2024 and will host government representatives from its member states and invited countries who will participate in the Leaders’ Summit and ministerial meetings.
Within this framework, the T20 – a group that brings together think tanks and research institutes from the G20 – aims to identify emerging societal challenges and discuss evidence-based proposals to address them, opening a channel of communication with the G20 and seeking to influence its agenda. Mecila, the Maria Sibylla Merian Center Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America, was invited to participate in the T20 Brazil discussions and decided to link it to its final workshop, so that the 2024 Mecila Fellows would have the opportunity to discuss their work with academics, civil society and political actors from Brazil and other countries.
The symposium “Care that Matters, Matters of Care: Overcoming Inequalities trough Care Policies” is framed in this context – as a side event of the T20 – bringing together researchers as well as civil society actors and government representatives working on care policies as key tools to address gender inequalities and their intersections with class and ethnic discrimination. Care activities are essential for the reproduction of society and the maintenance of life. When the capacity to raise and educate children, cook meals, care for the sick, or maintain clean homes and strong communities is diminished, the entire social order crumbles. Yet, despite their importance, these activities have historically been undervalued and unequally distributed in our societies.
Feminist scholars and activists have long advocated for the valorization and recognition of care as a crucial component of the economy, and in recent years, Latin American countries have made progress in designing and implementing public policies that seek to better distribute care in society in order to reduce inequalities. This symposium – co-funded by Mecila, the German Centre for Research and Innovation São Paulo (DWIH) and the International Cooperation Office of USP (Aucani) – aims to bring together different academic work on care and inequalities, both in Germany and in Brazil, as well as in other Latin American countries, contributing with proposals for the G20.
During this two-day event, we will discuss the links between care and inequalities across time and space, the struggles of different actors to valorize care, as well as the successes and challenges of public policies already implemented in the region.
This event comes in response to the T20 Task Force 1, which identified the need to rethink the care economy in order to combat gender discrimination and inequalities.
