Still Counting: Wellbeing, Women's Work and Policy-making

by Marilyn Waring

Thirty years ago Marilyn Waring’s groundbreaking book Counting for Nothing was released. Waring explained, through meticulous economic analysis, how the success of the global economy rests on women’s unpaid work. Counting for Nothing became a phenomenon: it was read and discussed around the world, and even made into a film.

Today, many people hope that the shift to a wellbeing approach – moving beyond narrow economic indicators when assessing New Zealand’s progress – will mean women’s work is finally valued fairly. But what does Marilyn Waring make of it? This short book provides an essential assessment of wellbeing economics from a leading feminist scholar.

Genres: Economics, Feminism, Nonfiction, History

112 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2018

About the author

Marilyn Joy Waring, CNZM (born 7 October 1952), is a New Zealand feminist, a politician, an activist for female human rights and environmental issues, a development consultant and United Nations expert, an author and an academic, known as a principal founder of the discipline of feminist economics.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Ellen Marie]

3.5 - a precise and scathing review of the major shortcomings of the OECD wellbeing and economics measurements often worshipped by major developed countries. The author knows what she’s talking about, and her quick wit makes this often dry subject matter instantly more appealing. She makes a compelling case that we cannot talk about things like “output” and “productivity” without addressing the fact that these can only be achieved or quantified with countless hours of unpaid work occurring behind the view of the economist.

Some key quotes I enjoyed:
“….The devolution of government care services to the ‘community’ creates an increase in unpaid activity by invisible workers. When a recession hits or there is a cut in government spending, the unpaid workers step up.”

“I’d like to shut some OECD officials in a home for a week with three children under five or a fully dependent adult with multiple disabilities, and ask them at the end of that time what they now thought was a long work week.”

“The market couldn’t function without the invisible servitude of the work done outside the production boundary. I am both aghast and amused that in the OECD universe, no reproduction takes place. Human and social capital just arrive fully fledged, workforce-ready at fifteen, thanks to market and public investment.”

[Holly]

A thought-provoking overview of Waring's arguments for the inadequacy of GDP as a true measurement of a country's wealth and health. The lines drawn between production and leisure render huge swathes of people's effort and time meaningless in economic terms, when often it is the unpaid, unrecognised work that enables every other kind of work to be done. She clearly indicates that a seismic shift in policy is necessary to really get the measure of how a nation is doing and to best serve those people who need it most.

[Anne Herbison]

It's discouraging to know that, despite what we know about how people live their lives, economic thinking remains outdated in important institutions which influence public policy. 'Are we post-GDP yet?' Marilyn Waring asks in an address to the 2018 Australian Conference of Economists. Jacinda Ardern was ambitious about what could be achieved under her leadership, but she was up against it. She aspired to 'make the wellbeing of our people a measure of our economic success'. Hence this book. Marilyn Waring has set out, since her book Counting for Nothing, to include the environment, eco-systems, and unpaid work in our economic accounting. Her approach has developed and changed over time - no longer putting a dollar value on these things. My copy is full of post-it flags and I can dip into it for a hearty dose of compassion, common sense and academic rigour.

[Helen Varley]

this is a great little book, quick to read & very understandable. marilyn waring writes in plain english and her arguments are practical, common sense, logical and clear. you don't need to be an economist to get it (but perhaps you need to be a psychologist to understand why it's so difficult to implement these ideas!). highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding the impact of sexist economics on society.

[Kelly Dombroski]

Well written and well edited in typical BWB style, a great little book to get you up to date on issues of national.accounts, womens work and wellbeing, which remain unresolved some 30 years after Marilyn first started publishing on them. It's time to ditch GDP as a measure of anything, folks!

[Sarah McCrum]

fundamentally important

This little book addresses such fundamental issues around the way we measure progress as nations that I would recommend it to every politician, statistician, economist, woman, man, person who cares about nature, in fact anyone who cares about life.

[Nadine]

Interesting and thought provoking. Takes a long time to read because you have to stop and think about so much of the content.

[Piper Mejia]

I love her writing - I always learn something new about the world and instead of feeling disheartened I feel empowered and hopeful.

[Kenya Leong]

Really liked it, peobably the smartest book i have ever read lol.

Didn’t understand some bits bc of jargon (or maybe just not smart enough) but really thought provoking

[Alex Devine]

4.5 ⭐️