Zoom Of Our Own: Shared Economies
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2020
What if you and you community owned its own banks and corporations? How can the collective approach of cooperative business models and banking in the public interest work together? Why would these make a difference for women?
Join us for a conversation about building shared economies between AEOO advisory board members Jamila Medley, of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative, and Jhumpa Bhattacharya, of The Insight Center for Community Development in Oakland; Emma Chappell, of the Public Banking Institute; and Susan Harman, a public banking activist in Oakland.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
Zoom of Our Own: The Invisible Woman
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2020
The work women do is mostly underpaid, always undervalued, and frequently invisible. That won’t change till we change the way we value women’s contributions, paid or unpaid. Our society values what we count and measure. Advocates for a Caring Economy insist we count and value how caring makes the world go around.
Riane Eisler (feminist ROCK STAR and Caring Economy enthusiast who wrote The Chalice and the Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations) will connect the links between the invisibility of care work, women’s discounted paychecks for care work, and what the pandemic has helped us see more clearly: all our work at home we’re expected to do for free. Khara Jabola-Carolus of Hawaii’s Commission on Women will report on her state’s The Feminist Post-Covid Economic Recovery Plan). Artist Patti Maciecz has created an invoice for all that invisible work and value. She calls it “Bill the Patriarchy”, part of her Invisible Labor Union. Martha Collins from the Milwaukee area food bank will bring the perspective of single moms who are doing it all, and often facing poverty.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
Zoom of Our Own: Envisioning Feminist Economic Futures
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2021
Much has been said about “the new normal.” After the pandemic, what will our world look like? The last four years (and the centuries before them!) have revealed that we must dream beyond “reform”—and envision and design real feminist futures that look entirely different from our lopsided reality that discounts our value.
Join us for a conversation on how we can truly “build back better”—by addressing the she-cession caused by COVID-19 and the underlying racism, sexism, and economic inequality that it has highlighted.
Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, the LBJ School's associate dean for civic engagement and lead author of the white paper "America's Recovery from the 2020 'Shecession': Building a Female Future of Childcare and Work," will explain how women have been shortchanged during the pandemic and what needs to change—at home, at work and in our culture—to ensure we don’t lose generations of progress. Karen Bassarab, senior program officer with the Food Communities and Public Health Program at The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, will suss out what is needed to build a resilient and equitable global food system. Farah Tanis, executive director of Black Women’s Blueprint, will lay out a powerful vision for a future in which Black women—and therefore all of us—are truly free.
Led in conversation by AEOO’s Digital Director Carmen Rios—a feminist superstar who has been writing about workplace inequality, working-class women, and feminism beyond capitalism for over 10 years—our panel will share actions we can take to to begin building an economy of our own. What do YOU think it would look like?
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
Zoom of Our Own: Creating Money and Blowing Big Bubbles
MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2021
Where does our money come from? And what are our real American values?
If Wall Street and Silicon Valley have more billionaires than ever, how come Main Street’s people are living from paycheck to paycheck—and that’s if they’re lucky?! What is the nature of the currency we call the dollar? And how can we invest our privately earned dollars and our shared public dollars more wisely for the long term? What does the Robinhood GameStop story in the news tell us about the money systems we all count on, but that treats us very differently if we’re Black, brown, or female?
Learn how women are working now to more clearly explain our current money world, including the Federal Reserve, and working to change our money’s intent—not to enrich just a few winners at the cost of mostly losers, but to grant all of us a livable future—in this Zoom of Our Own.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Ebony L. Perkins is Director of Investor Relations at Self-Help Credit Union in Durham, NC,, and manages a seven-person team that helps groups and individuals invest funds in communities under served by conventional lenders. Ebony participates in the US Forum for Sustainable & Responsible Investing, Women In Philanthropy, and the Financial Planning Association, and was recognized by the Socially Responsible Investment Conference in their 30 Leaders Under 30 List.
Ellen Hodgson Brown founded the Public Banking Institute in 2010 and is currently its chair. She is an attorney and author of thirteen books including Web of Debt, The Public Bank Solution, and Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. She also co-hosts a radio program, “It’s Our Money” on PRN.FM. Her 300+ blog articles are posted at EllenBrown.com.
Mary Sanderson has worked as a Wisconsin farmer, explorer, postal worker, peace & justice advocate, and mom. Three years ago, three new jobs fell into her lap at once; grandma, ad hoc nurse and Citizen Scholar on Money. Her energy got a big boost from learning the backstory on bank-credit, and advocating for permanent public money to begin healing the messes we are in. Mary serves on WILPF’s Women, Money & Democracy Committee, the Green Party, and the board of Alliance for Just Money (AFJM).
Adrienne Massanari (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research interests include new media, gaming, digital cultures, design, platform politics, gender, and ethics. Her book, Participatory Culture, Community, and Play: Learning from Reddit (Peter Lang, 2015), considers the culture of Reddit.com; she was a source for a recent Washington Post article on the Robinhood scandal, Roaring Kitty and a dangerous online culture.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
Zoom Of Our Own: Fostering Climate and Economic Justice from the Ground Up
MONDAY, MAY 24, 2021
What is security? On whose account? Our species faces a climate crisis, a water and food crisis, and a demented delusion that humans are natural overlords of earth’s domain.
T-Rex probably believed that too. Then the weather got really bad...
An Economy of Our Own gathered some of the earthiest women we know to talk about sustaining our weather, our water, and our food. This talk provides solutions for climate change, rooted in current extractive agricultural & water policy, and resource-grabbing for private profit. It's a huge set of topics, but these just the women to help us make sense of it.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Didi Pershouse, an AEOO board member, and founder of the Land and Leadership Initiative, an online school, moderated the conversation. She is the author of: The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities; and Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function.
Dr. Sabine O'Hara is Dean and Director of Landgrant Programs for the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences of the University of the District of Columbia. Widely known for her expertise in sustainable economic development and global education, she’s a former president of the International Society for Ecological Economics.
Monique Verdin is with WECAN (Women's Earth Climate Action Network), their Program Leader for the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Program for the Mississippi River Delta Region. Author of Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations, she’s an interdisciplinary storyteller, documenting the complex relationship between environment, culture, and climate in southeast Louisiana.
Gwendolyn Hallsmith is an AEOO board member, author of The Key to Sustainable Cities and co-author of Creating Wealth: Growing Local Economies with Local Currencies and founder of Global Initiative and Vermonters for a New Economy. She's currently organizing a Regeneration Revolution whose earth-friendly, anti-racist principles are linked here.
We also share a short video about Tope Fajinbesi of Dodo Farms in Maryland’s Agricultural Reserve. She's an accountant, teaching at the Institute for Applied Agriculture and sits on the board of Future Harvest, another organization working to sustain life from the ground up.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
WE ARE THE ECONOMY: A Zoom Of Our Own Conversation on Community Well-Being & Mutual Aid
MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2022
Join dynamic women to learn about ways to create more resilient communities through revolving credit circles, cooperative businesses, trade agreements, services, and more. Women often lead these local efforts that economists traditionally call “informal,” but why? Would becoming more “formal,” as some are now urging, improve mutual trust and security, or undermine it?
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Associate Professor of Global Development and Political Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies (DiSE) Collective pushing for equitable economies, elected board member to the International Association of Feminist Economics, and editorial board member to the U.N. Task Force for the Social and Solidarity Economy. Dr. Hossein is the author of Politicized Microfinance, co-author to Critical Introduction to Business and Society, and editor of The Black Social Economy, and she has a forthcoming co-edited book, Community Economies in the Global South.
Katonya Hart belongs to several nonprofit organizations, including the West Virginia NAACP, the CARE Coalition, and NOW’s National Board. She’s also a community activist working with West Virginia’s Commission on Women and its Economic Empowerment group.
Crystal Arnold is the founder of Money-Morphosis, director of education at the Post Growth Institute, creator and host of the Money-Wise Women podcast, and a financial coach, inspirational speaker, and group facilitator. Her written work has appeared in journals, magazines, and in the book called Reinhabiting the Village.
Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and the “Women Unscrewing Screwnomics” column at Ms. magazine, and founder of AEOO—will facilitate the shared conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Registrants receive a curriculum for further learning on the subjects covered and be able to submit questions to the panelists live and in advance.
SHARING OWNERSHIP: A Zoom Of Our Own Conversation on Co-Op Businesses
MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022
What makes co-op businesses different? Why are women and people of color drawn to them? How do you start one? Join us to learn more!
If you've ever wondered how exactly this different business model could help you and your community, tune in to this conversation about the growing number of worker-owned businesses, where women are the majority. What makes these businesses different? Why are women and people of color drawn to them? How do you start one? Where can you get help?
Draw from the expertise of Jamila Medley, an independent co-op consultant working with black women’s co-ops; Georgia Kelly, who coordinates trainings with Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain, the largest Co-op Corporation in the world; and Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and the “Women Unscrewing Screwnomics” column at Ms. magazine, and founder of AEOO.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Georgia Kelly is the founder and director of Praxis Peace Institute, a non-profit peace education organization that is focused on transforming society through a systems approach to peace, social and economic justice, environmental sustainability, and civic participation. She has also developed educational seminar/tours in Italy, Croatia, Cuba, and at the Mondragón Cooperatives in Spain, where she has focused on cooperatives as an ethical and socially just economic model for the 21st century. She is the editor and co-author of Uncivil Liberties: Deconstructing Libertarianism, a critique of libertarian ideas and laissez-faire capitalism, and author of The Mondragón Report, a profile of twenty-two participants from various Praxis-Mondragon seminars, which demonstrates how they have used their newly acquired knowledge in creating economic alternatives in the U.S.
Jamila Medley has supported mission-based organizations in the non-profit and cooperative business sectors for over 20 years. As an independent consultant, she now leverages her background in organizational development, as well as her lived experience being part of efforts focused on economic and racial justice, to move organizations towards transformational change. From 2012-2021, Jamila served in governance roles and then as executive director of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance; in 2018, Jamila was the Philadelphia Community Fellow for the Shared Economics in Equitable Development Fellowship. She serves on the boards of directors for several organizations including the Independence Public Media Foundation, Movement Alliance Project, Food Co-op Initiative, and All Together Now PA.
Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and the “Women Unscrewing Screwnomics” column at Ms. magazine, and founder of AEOO—facilitated the shared conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Registrants receive a curriculum for further learning on the subjects covered and be able to submit questions to the panelists live and in advance.
Counting on Women: Inside Mondragón with Georgia Kelly
MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2022
Georgia Kelly joined us to tell us much more about Mondragón in Spain, the largest worker-owned cooperative corporation in the world. Georgia has developed an educational seminar tour at the Mondragón Cooperatives in Spain—and from her experience at Mondragón, has focused on cooperatives as an ethical and socially just economic model for the 21st century.
This conversation was a follow-up to our Zoom of Our Own on worker-owned co-ops in March. Georgia Kelly joined us to tell us much more about Mondragón in Spain, the largest worker-owned cooperative corporation in the world, and her remarkable partnership with them, bringing Americans to the Basque region to learn more in her seminars. Georgia has developed an educational seminar tour at the Mondragón Cooperatives in Spain—and from her experience at Mondragón, has focused on cooperatives as an ethical and socially just economic model for the 21st century. She is also the author of The Mondragón Report, a profile of twenty-two participants from various Praxis-Mondragon seminars, which demonstrates how they have used their newly acquired knowledge in creating economic alternatives in the U.S.
If you've wondered what on Earth Mondragón is, tune in! There is probably not another American more knowledgeable about the world's biggest worker-owned ecosystem of cooperatives, and how the region that was once Spain's poorest, now really operates as an economic democracy. Imagine!
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Georgia Kelly is the founder and director of Praxis Peace Institute, a non-profit peace education organization that is focused on transforming society through a systems approach to peace, social and economic justice, environmental sustainability, and civic participation. She has also developed educational seminar/tours in Italy, Croatia, Cuba, and at the Mondragón Cooperatives in Spain, where she has focused on cooperatives as an ethical and socially just economic model for the 21st century. She is the editor and co-author of Uncivil Liberties: Deconstructing Libertarianism, a critique of libertarian ideas and laissez-faire capitalism, and author of The Mondragón Report, a profile of twenty-two participants from various Praxis-Mondragon seminars, which demonstrates how they have used their newly acquired knowledge in creating economic alternatives in the U.S.
She was in conversation with Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and the “Women Unscrewing Screwnomics” column at Ms. magazine, and founder of AEOO.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our Counting on Women series empowers women to share their knowledge and expertise through conversations with one another—flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Now every "last Monday of the Month" you can count on an AEOO event—first, the introduction of a subject in a Zoom of Our Own, followed the next month by a more in depth and intimate conversation as part of our Counting on Women series with someone who knows the details.
DIGITAL POSSIBILITIES: A Zoom of Our Own Conversation on Capitalism, Technology, and the Fight for a Feminist Internet
MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2022
How do capitalism, racism, and sexism shape our digital experiences? How can we build a feminist future online? Find out through this conversation with Communication and Science and Technology Studies scholar Breigha Adeyemo, journalist and DIGITAL SUFFRAGISTS author Marie Tessier, social systems scientist Riane Eisler, and AEOO’s Digital Director Carmen Rios!
The virtual world once felt like it could shape a different future—one more democratic and equitable. But capitalism—as well as its siblings, including racism and sexism—are turning digital spaces into the same corporatized, white- and male-dominated ones we’ve known for centuries.
How have lopsided power structures shaped our digital experiences? What can virtual communities and digital movements reveal about the potential, still, for a reclamation of the democratic possibilities of technology? And what can we do now to build an intersectional, feminist future online?
Find out by tuning in to this discussion with scholars and activists pushing back on digital power paradigms to find solutions.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Breigha Adeyemo is a Communication and Science and Technology Studies scholar whose work centers at the intersections of technology, democracy, and racial/social justice. Her overarching research goal is to democratize technology, in design and deployment, to produce more just, responsible, and inclusive technology. Breigha’s work has been published in Feminist Media Studies and covered or shared by NPR and PBS affiliates and the Associated Press.
Marie Tessier is a journalist and writer who moderates comments to the opinion pages of The New York Times. Her work has appeared on the Women's eNews and Women's Media Center websites, in Ms. Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and more. Her 2021 book, DIGITAL SUFFRAGISTS: WOMEN, THE WEB, AND THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY, explores why women's voices are outnumbered online and what we can do about it.
Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, attorney, consultant, and speaker. Dr. Eisler is president of the Center for Partnership Studies and Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, and co-author of the book Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future. With CPS, she is now engaged in efforts to reshape AI under a partnership model and shake up the domination economies shaping digital innovation.
Carmen Rios, AEOO’s Digital Director—and a feminist superstar who has been writing about the intersections of race, gender, and class and holding space for feminists and queer folks online for over 10 years—moderated the conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy.
Housing Equity: Solutions We Can Live With
MONDAY, JULY 25, 2022
A home is more than just a dwelling. It’s the security a family feels having a roof over their heads that can’t be taken away. It’s the collective memories of a family gathering place.
It can also be the equity that provides generational wealth.
But increasingly, in the US, owning a home is available only to the upper third of our citizens. Renting is being pushed as the go-to housing preference, even though it offers no equity and often little protections. What housing is available for the poor is in terrible condition. And after years of pandemic economic losses, families are finding themselves on the edge of foreclosure and homelessness is climbing.
House flippers, gentrification, profiteering off the poor, regulations that prevent new housing going up, and disappearing rights are all part of the problem. What are the solutions?
In this Zoom of Our Own Conversation, we heard from a national expert on housing inequity, learned about solutions like Community Land Trusts and one county in New Jersey that claims to have eradicated homelessness, and engaged in a compelling and honest dialogue about how to fix the problem of inequitable housing in America.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Dev Goetschius is the founding executive director of Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County, an organization that has been in partnership with cities to produce and preserve permanently affordable, owner-occupied homes. She has over 30 years of experience in management, strategic planning, program design and fundraising for nonprofit organizations and is a partner at Burlington Associates in Community Development, the national consulting firm specializing in the development and evaluation of affordable housing policies and community land trust programs; co-founder of the CA CLT Network and the Bay Are Community Land Trust Consortium; founding board member and past president of the National Community Land Trust Network; and a founding member on the Board of Directors at Generation Housing and at the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation.
Julia Orlando, CRC, Ed.M, MA, DRCC, is the Director of the Bergen County Housing, Health and Human Services Center. The mission of this nationally recognized and award winning Center is to end homelessness in Bergen County. Julia has over 30 years of clinical and managerial experience developing and providing social services to individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, and others experiencing chronic homelessness, prisoner reentry or involved in jail diversion programs. She is an advisor to the NJ Coalition to End Homelessness, an adjunct professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, and has provided consultation and training for a wide variety of non-profit organizations privately through Julia Orlando Consulting.
Rasheedah Phillips leads PolicyLink’s national advocacy to support the growing tenants’ rights, housing, and land use movements in partnership with grassroots partners, movement leaders, industry, and government leaders—and has led various housing policy campaigns that resulted in significant legislative changes, including a right to counsel for tenants in Philadelphia, and the Renter’s Access Act, one of the strongest laws in the nation to address blanket ban eviction polices having a disparate impact on renters of color. Rasheedah is the recipient of the 2017 National Housing Law Project Housing Justice Award, the 2017 City & State Pennsylvania 40 Under 40 Rising Star Award, the 2018 Temple University Black Law Student Association Alumni Award, and more.
Marybeth Gardam, Chair of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom's Women, Money & Democracy committee and an AEOO Advisory Board member, will moderate the conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.
Counting on Women: Rasheedah Phillips on Gender and Housing Policy
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022
What discrimination should women be aware of in finding and keeping adequate housing? How can our communities adopt solidarity policies to keep housing stable, safe, and available for women and people of color?
Tune in to this conversation to get those answers—and learn so much more about the feminist future of housing policy! Counting on Women is our new, up close, and personal conversation series of digital fireside chats with individuals who are working to change our economy in positive ways that address women's omission from economics as usual and ways to find new solutions.
This conversation was a follow-up to our Zoom of Our Own on housing equity in July. Click here to tune in and access a curriculum for further learning. Rasheedah also shared PolicyLink’s Anti-Displacement Toolkit, including a map tracking Tenant/Community Opportunity to Purchase campaigns, and new tools on rent registries and rent stabilization (8 tools total).
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Rasheedah Phillips, Esq. leads PolicyLink’s national advocacy to support the growing tenants’ rights, housing, and land use movements in partnership with grassroots partners, movement leaders, industry, and government leaders. Previously serving as Managing Attorney of Housing Policy at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Rasheedah has led various housing policy campaigns that resulted in significant legislative changes, including a right to counsel for tenants in Philadelphia, and the Renter’s Access Act, one of the strongest laws in the nation to address blanket ban eviction polices having a disparate impact on renters of color. Rasheedah has trained on racial justice and housing law issues and skills throughout the country, previously serving as the Senior Advocate Resources & Training Attorney at Shriver Center on Poverty Law. Rasheedah’s leadership has been recognized with the recipient of the 2017 National Housing Law Project Housing Justice Award, the 2017 City & State Pennsylvania 40 Under 40 Rising Star Award, the 2018 Temple University Black Law Student Association Alumni Award, and more. Rasheedah is also an interdisciplinary afrofuturist artist and cultural producer who has exhibited and performed work globally.
She will be in conversation with Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and the “Women Unscrewing Screwnomics” column at Ms. magazine, and founder of AEOO.
ABOUT THE SERIES:
As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.
Our Counting on Women series empowers women to share their knowledge and expertise through conversations with one another—flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy.
Overcoming Financial Trauma: What's Systemic? What's Personal? What Helps?
MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023
In an economy that only values what money can buy, your personal money-measure can bring you shame and anxiety whether you have lots of money, or no money at all. Being unemployed or undervalued, losing a business, or not reaching personal financial goals can trigger stress, humiliation, and even debilitating trauma—a Greek word that literally means "wound."
Financial wounds might not bleed, but they can lead to your avoiding the subject, or overspending. Women's pay gap is growing again, US credit card debt just topped $1 trillion, and people of color face special risk. So are people who have suffered generational trauma, sexual trauma, domestic violence, physical illness, addiction, or injury.
The good news: you are definitely not alone! If you avoid thinking about money, overspend, or feel scared when you do, learn why so many feel we're never enough—and what steps can help!—in this Zoom of Our Own conversation.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Riane Eisler founded The Center for Partnership Studies. Her work has transformed organizations, policies, and people worldwide, beginning with her book, The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, in over 57 US printings and 30 foreign editions.Her latest book Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future (co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry, Oxford University Press 2019) shows how to construct a more equitable, sustainable, and less violent world based on Partnership Systems rather than Domination Systems.
Shanda Williams organizes Money Matters: Financial Liberation Series for BIPOC families and women, creating accessible programs to learn about racial and generational trauma, financial wellness, budgeting, and building resilience and confidence. She's organizing and hosting a Money Matters: Eco-Feminism and Radical Love Symposium at Goddard College on Oct. 20th.
Andria Barrett is co-founder of The Banker Ladies Council of Canada, supporting ROSCAs, or mutual financial credit systems. She's an active investor supporting women entrepreneurs, and serves on the boards of the Culinary Tourism Alliance, Help A Girl Out and PACE (Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education). She's a member of the Peel Regional Police Anti-Racism Advisory Committee, and for two consecutive years was named as one of the Most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders. A consultant with The Diversity Agency, she often speaks about the importance of wellness, self-confidence, and unconscious bias.
Jaqueline Strenio is a health and feminist economist currently researching the economic determinants and consequences of intimate partner violence. She is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Norwich University and specializes in the costs of healthcare and domestic violence.
Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and founder of AEOO—will facilitate the conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.
Women & Worker Power: Gender, Labor, and Unions
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022
We ended 2022 with a Zoom of Our Own focused on the growing phenomenon of labor organizing, including at big multinational companies like Starbuck's and Amazon—and importantly a change toward more inclusive union leadership by women and people of color.
We've noticed that women, beginning with Rose Schneiderman and her famous bread & roses, tend to widen labor issues beyond worker wages and benefits to issues that involve the whole community.
What are the obstacles we women face in the educational realm, the health care and public service realm—and in the wider union organizing realm? And what new hopeful approaches do women leaders see? We put together a great panel of labor activists to answer these questions.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Theresa Mitchell Dudley has evolved from being a substitute teacher, to an elementary classroom teacher, eventually landing as a middle school teacher. Her union activism includes service as a building representative, Membership Committee, and PGCEA board member, vice president and president. Theresa now serves as MSEA board member and represents MSEA as an NEA Board of Directors Member. She is the mother of Joyce and Alfred Dudley.
Afifa Khaliq is Director of Programs at SEIU Florida Public Services Union. She has been a part of a creative core team that is setting new trends and redefining labor, politics, economy, and social justice. Afifa is an unapologetic and proud Muslim. She is a founding member and secretary of the South Florida Muslim Federation. She is also the Chair of Emgage Florida, a Muslim civic engagement organization.
Patti Maciesz is a parent, artist, and organizer based in Oakland, California. Her work with Bill the Patriarchy and The Invisible Labor Union evolved during the Pandemic to working with Hand in Hand, a network of domestic employers. Recognizing their relative privilege, they work closely with the National Domestic Workers Alliance to value the care work done in the nation's homes, whether by hiring with fair pay and benefits or by calling attention to the discount that all care work is given in society at large. Maciesz resists the invisibility that envelopes mothers and the essential work of making a home.
Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and the “Women Unscrewing Screwnomics” column at Ms. magazine, and founder of AEOO—moderated the conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.
Investing for Change: Feminist-ing Finance for People and Planet
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2023
Financiers and investors have traditionally been male and remain so when guarding the assets of the largest global investors on Wall Street. If you or your state or your company are growing pensions, it's likely you're investing in global fossil fuels and the military industrial complex without knowing it.
A growing number of women are learning how to actively invest their values. Learn how they're growing the livelihoods of local communities, women and BIPOC entrepreneurs, and companies that care about the environment, fair and inclusive governance, and sustainability.
MEET THE SPEAKERS:
Janine Firpo is the author of Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World and co-founder of the educational nonprofit, Invest for Better; Women Lead the Way;
Vanessa Lowe is an economic development professional who has a passion for equipping low-and moderate-income people with the tools to manage their money and build their wealth. host of Vanessa's Money Hour on G-Town Radio in Philadelphia.
Gwen Pokalo Hart is an entrepreneur with New England's Center for Women and Enterprise and on the board of Vermont Community Loan Fund.
Rickey Gard Diamond—author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change and founder of AEOO—facilitated the conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.
Private Equity's Secret Plunder: What It Is and Why You Don't Know About It
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2024
Learn how private equity enriches a few behind closed doors — and what you can do to help stop a very real steal.
This year An Economy of Our Own is examining our economy's "financialization," a hocus pocus word to distract us from seeing US billionaires' ruthless power.
Private Equity, or PE, is another nice-sounding phrase to disguise a few pale males, who are strip-mining US businesses, loading up company debt, while eliminating jobs and services. PE targets our most vulnerable, capturing hospitals, nursing homes, day care centers, trailer parks, and retail stores, hollowing out communities. If you've lost a job, or noticed growing bankruptcies, learn how PE enriches a few behind closed doors, and importantly, what you can do to help stop a very real steal.
We talked with Aliya Sabharwal, who spotlights Private Equity at the educational nonprofit network, Americans for Financial Reform, and Jess Newman of United for Respect, a multiracial movement working to hold Wall Street accountable for what they more accurately name Private Piracy. AEOO Digital Director Carmen Rios moderated the conversation.
This event was recorded live. As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women. Together we can construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.”
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy. Our economics is lived in real complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.
Full-Bodied Earth Economics: Applying Nature's Balance to Economic Exchanges
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024
The words Ecology and Economy share the same Greek root, oikos, which mean a home or dwelling. Ecology studies relationships among organisms in a particular environment. Economy studies human interactions and exchanges in a multicultural environment. Since relationships and home dwellings are familiar female territory, we invite you to join us for a great woman-to-woman conversation about threats to our planet and, more importantly, real solutions. A healthy climate, rich soil, and clean water and air are surely foundational to any economy's wellbeing, so come learn what's necessary and hopeful.
This Zoom of Our Own conversation is part of AEOO's 2024 Full-Bodied Economics Series, focused on the productive economy we all need for our lives and livelihoods.
We'll share little known ways an economy waged as war has created a ruthless culture of "privatization" and "financialization," indifferent to social outcomes. Its mystification of money, as if money alone creates value, makes a safe climate, good health care, healthy food, and affordable housing more and more difficult for more and more people. Does it need to be this way? How might we apply Mother Earth's balance of nature to our economic exchanges? What can we do on the ground to enable a productive economy that better empowers all earth's bodies to flourish and be healthy?
MEET OUR SPEAKERS
Dr. Cathy Day is a geographer and qualitative researcher who studies people's environmental interactions in agroecosystems challenged by climate change. Cathy has been working with farmers to understand their climate challenges for twenty years. Most recently, she was the Climate Policy coordinator for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. While based in Washington DC, she worked with members across the country to advocate for better federal agriculture policy in USDA's Farm Bill. She currently is a sustainability consultant.
Mary Grant is the Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food & Water Watch. Mary has authored numerous reports exposing the dangers of water privatization and the need for public investment in water infrastructure. Her original research exposed the scandal of Flint water users paying the highest rates in the country during the height of the city’s poisoned water crisis, and her research has been essential to the efforts in dozens of communities across the country to stop water privatization.
Marguerite Adelman is a retired non-profit administrator in education, social services, and government. A former Communications Director for the Cook County Department of Public Health in Illinois, she became interested in per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 2019. For the past five years, she has served as Coordinator for the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition. Marguerite has given PFAS presentations to citizen groups, WILPF branches across the US, and WILPF International's Earth Democracy Committee. The VT Coalition includes groups working for peace and social and economic eco-justice, collaborating to provide education on "forever chemicals" and advocate for legislation to ban PFAS forever.
Carmen Rios is the Digital Director of An Economy of Our Own.
WHAT IS A ZOOM OF OUR OWN?
As some feminist epistemologists (Gilligan, Belenky et al.) have taught us, seeing and seeking connections seems to be women’s ways of knowing and reasoning. Our economics is lived in tangible and complex communities. Our goal is to model how women can talk together and learn together about traditionally male territory still new to most women.
Our Zoom of Own Series brings women (and men!) together to construct a fuller knowledge and set of values now omitted from the mainstream “free market.” Together, we're flipping the script on a racist, sexist economy.