How can the crisis of social reproduction be overcome?

With inputs from

• Prof. Gabriele Winker, social scientist, author of Care Revolution. Steps towards a society based on solidarity

• Felicia Lazaridou, Psychologist, Charité Berlin

• Dr. Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, Member of the German Parliament, Spokeswoman for Health Promotion (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)

Moderation: Dr. Ines Kappert and Francesca Schmidt (GWI)

Grievances related to health care and care work have been known for years. Feminists never tire of promoting rethinking. Only recently have many of them backed a manifesto and formulated demands on the federal government. It is about recognizing that people need care in every situation. It is about recognizing that every person needs care in every situation - and therefore care is a basic condition of existence. Outsourcing them to women with little or no remuneration is in line with capitalist logic. But it allows only a few to live a good life.

The pandemic has once again shown how little relevance the majority society and politics have given to demands for adequate payment and redistribution of care work. But now the “crisis of social reproduction”, as Gabriele Winker describes the prevailing conditions, can no longer be ignored. It also has a negative impact on the world of work.

So how can the pandemic be used to start a political change? How do we come to the overdue change of perspective that allows care work to be distributed fairly and health care to be adequately guaranteed? Which political demands must now be made strong in order to achieve a fair distribution of the burdens and profits?

We look forward to an input from Prof. Gabriele Winker, who will briefly outline her concrete utopia. The psychologist Felicia Lazaridou will report on her work experiences from the Berlin Charité. Dr. Kirsten Kappert-Gonther will finally outline the current debate in the Bundestag with a focus on women's health and will discuss possible options for improving health care.
 

The event takes place via zoom and follows the Chatham House Rule, i.e. Content can be communicated to third parties, but quotes and names are not shared with non-participants.

Languages: German and English in simultaneous translation

P.S. Barbara Unmüßig from the board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Gunda Werner Institute are among the first signatories to the manifesto of the Equal Care Day initiative in May 2020
 

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