In his quest to tour the country, SoSaturnistic has come down to the Waikato to pay tribute to the work of Marilyn Waring, a figure who has inspired much of what Feminist Initiative stands for. In her hometown, Taupiri, SoSaturnistic meets with some of the local residents.

Hello, I’m really quite pleased to see that people have come out to this event. Today I’d like to take some time to remember the relevance of one of our country’s real heroes who grew up around here—Dame Marilyn Waring.

Her life, growing up in a smaller town, rising to political office and challenging one of the most powerful men in the country is certainly an amazing and inspiring story in and of itself. Her challenge and support for social equality even more so. But what isn’t focused on and isn’t appreciated nearly as much in our country is her work in the field of economics where she has radically changed our understanding of society.

You see, she was a pioneer in terms of criticising the typical economic consensus of the day. In those times, people simply assumed that the things which are produced for the marketplace are automatically better than anything else which is produced or done for anyone. That’s GDP, that’s the economic growth that politicians and the business world likes to talk about.

Waring thought differently. She said that marketable produce isn’t the only thing that’s of value. She said that people ought to have regard for the many important tasks we do in life, like look after our kids and clean up our homes. We might not always like it, but these tasks are important. And funnily enough, if someone is paid to do these things, then it is counted within the realm of ‘marketable produce’ and it is counted within the so-called “official economy”.

That has a huge implication for women. Given that the tasks done by women are more likely to be unpaid, Waring was able to put together a strong and coherent framework for the way that women have been systematically excluded and disadvantaged by our economic system. Her work has led to a massive rethink in the way that countries pursue economic development today, and it’s gotten to the point that even the mainstream economic institutions of the world have started to see gender equality as something of vital importance.

Waring has since called for ways to rebalance our economy to respect the contribution that women make to society as well as to count and ensure that the impact of policy does not unduly harm efforts towards gender equality. Our party has fully taken on these ideas by making efforts aimed at rebalancing working life and implementing ‘gender budgeting’ measures to ensure that women do not inadvertently face the brunt of policy decisions.

Of course Dame Marilyn Waring has no official connection to our organisation. That said, her work has been a massive influence on our ambitions and ideals. Her efforts in advocacy to promote greater equality between all people guide our actions. It is truly a credit to Taupiri that such a renowned person can claim to have deep roots here.