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Economic Justice
Challenging neoliberal frameworks and advocating for feminist economic alternatives
Our Economic Justice Work
At Equality Vanguard, we assert the intrinsic link between economic justice and gender justice. Throughout Africa and the Global South, the prevailing neoliberal framework, characterized by privatization, austerity measures, and deregulation, has fundamentally restructured not merely markets, but also societal existence.
Feminist scholars delineate this system as a manifestation of gender-based violence, given its structural and enduring detrimental impact, often imperceptible to its beneficiaries. This framework erodes public services, attenuates labor protections, and commodifies essential life elements, compelling women to bear the brunt through unremunerated care work, precarious employment, and personal sacrifice.
Empirical data substantiates this grim reality. During structural adjustment programs in sub-Saharan Africa, average real wages declined in 26 of 28 observed nations. In Ghana, the privatization of forty-two significant state enterprises between 1984 and 1991 resulted in the termination of over 150,000 jobs, disproportionately affecting women in educational, nursing, and clerical professions. In South Africa, more than 60% of households in Soweto experienced electricity disconnections within a single year, with some enduring outages for over a month. Across rural Kenya, climate shocks, exacerbated by resource privatization, compel households to confront untenable choices: 42% of out-of-school girls cite domestic responsibilities, such as childcare or water collection, as the reason for their withdrawal after their families' incomes collapsed.
Privatization and structural adjustment programs transfer risk from governmental entities to individuals. Hospitals, educational institutions, and utilities, formerly regarded as public trusts, are re-envisioned as cost centers or profit-generating opportunities. User fees for healthcare services render care inaccessible to the impoverished. Water and electricity tariffs escalate under private operators, forcing families to prioritize between essential services and sustenance. As public safety nets disintegrate, women compensate for these deficiencies, engaging in extended unremunerated labor, incurring debt, or entering insecure informal employment. This unseen labor sustains households and communities but degrades women's health, economic autonomy, and prospects for education or leadership.
The environmental ramifications are equally profound. Resource privatization and cost-recovery policies frequently diminish oversight and accountability, leading to environmental degradation that disproportionately harms smallholder farmers, predominantly women. When forests are cleared for extractive industries or land is commodified for large-scale agribusiness, women lose access to firewood, water, and arable land. Climate shocks, droughts, floods, unpredictable seasons, intensify under these conditions, exacerbating poverty and instigating practices such as early marriage or school withdrawal for girls. Privatized utilities respond to climate-induced disruptions by raising prices or curtailing supply, further marginalizing those already at the periphery.
The Hidden Violence of Neoliberalism
Structural Impact
- •During structural adjustment programs in sub-Saharan Africa, average real wages declined in 26 of 28 observed nations
- •In Ghana, privatization of 42 state enterprises resulted in termination of over 150,000 jobs, disproportionately affecting women
- •In South Africa, 60% of households experienced electricity disconnections within a single year
Environmental Impact
- •Resource privatization leads to environmental degradation that disproportionately harms women farmers
- •Climate shocks intensify under privatization, exacerbating poverty and forcing difficult choices
- •42% of out-of-school girls cite domestic responsibilities after family income collapse
Our Feminist Economic Approach
Gender-Responsive Budgeting
Advocating for budget allocation that considers the differential impact of economic policies on women and men.
Recognition of Care Work
Working to ensure unremunerated care work is recognized as integral to the economy and properly valued.
Feminist Alternatives
Promoting cooperatives, care-centered economies, and progressive redistribution models.
The Numbers Don't Lie
26/28
Nations in sub-Saharan Africa where real wages declined during structural adjustment
150K+
Jobs lost in Ghana's privatization, disproportionately affecting women
60%
Of Soweto households experienced electricity disconnections in one year
Building Feminist Economic Alternatives
Equality Vanguard addresses these challenges by integrating rigorous legal approaches with innovative alternatives. We advocate for gender-responsive budgeting, equitable taxation, robust social protection, and the recognition of unremunerated care work as integral to the economy. We meticulously document the lived experiences of women navigating these policies, utilizing testimonies and research to unveil the insidious violence inherent in economic systems. We forge alliances with feminist economists, labor unions, climate justice movements, and community organizations to devise solutions that prioritize care, equity, and ecological sustainability.
Our vision is unambiguous: an economy that gauges success by human well-being and planetary health, rather than by abstract growth figures or profit margins. Economic justice is the right to live with dignity, to offer and receive care, and to participate in shaping the principles of our collective future.
Designating neoliberalism as a form of gender-based violence is a necessary act of truth-telling. By contesting privatization and deleterious economic reforms, and by championing feminist economic alternatives, such as cooperatives, care-centered economies, and progressive redistribution, we endeavor to construct an economy that heals rather than inflicts harm.
Documentation & Research
We meticulously document the lived experiences of women navigating these policies, utilizing testimonies and research to unveil the insidious violence inherent in economic systems.
Policy Advocacy
We advocate for gender-responsive budgeting, equitable taxation, robust social protection, and the recognition of unremunerated care work as integral to the economy.
Join Our Economic Justice Movement
Designating neoliberalism as a form of gender-based violence is a necessary act of truth-telling. By contesting privatization and deleterious economic reforms, we endeavor to construct an economy that heals rather than inflicts harm.