Building on the momentum of the 8M, we are sharing an interesting perspective about the path to sustainability that paves the way to a huge competitive advantage.
It’s no secret that at Gain we love purple. It stands out, it looks good on our notebooks and, most importantly, it’s the color that comes to mind when we think about development. Why?
When we talk about the economy of the future, most optimistic views have a green tint to them. Achieving sustainable growth has been the great challenge of the 21st century, and the green economy represents an unprecedented opportunity for the type of sustainable development and business growth that mirror our very mission as a company. However, we want to go further; we also want to think purple.
The purple economy model, popularized by economist Ipek Ilkkaracan, presents a more ambitious vision for the future. This model focuses on the cultural vector of the economy, seeking to associate the vision of an equitable environment between men and women at the heart of the green economy.
Just as mainstream economics neglected the environmental impact of widespread development for many decades, another area of importance that has also remained absent from the conventional paradigm is the care economy, largely driven by women.
The care economy entails both reproduction and the act of caring labor of our society as a whole, – cooking, washing, cleaning, shopping, taking care of babies, the ill,disabled and elderly. This work, largely taken for granted, consists of millions of work hours constituting approximately 42% (almost half) of total global work hours; three quarters of this is women’s unpaid labor (International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, 2018).
Although the gender pay gap is its biggest challenge, the purple model advocates systematically addressing inequalities in the care economy in order to improve women’s prospects for economic development. In addition, it offers solutions through the recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work, with the aim of increasing equity and efficiency in the economy.
To this end, the purple economy proposes to offer a pathway to inclusive and sustainable growth supported by four pillars:
- Acommitment to a universal infrastructure of social assistance services.
- Regulating the labor market to facilitate a work-life balance with equal gender incentives.
- Implementing a gender-sensitive macroeconomic policy for the generation of decent jobs and inclusive and sustainable growth.
- Create time-saving physical infrastructure in low-income rural contexts (The World Economic Forum, April 2019).
From a growth perspective, perhaps the most valuable aspect of this model is the business advantage derived from both taking into consideration this dimension of work, as well as acting on it. Creating diverse, inclusive and equitably remunerated work environments lead to greater employee engagement and retention, as well as higher financial returns, according to studies by the World Economic Forum.
For this reason, whenever you think about what the economy of the future will look like, we encourage you to think not only in green hues, but also purple.
References
- “Care is an Economic Issue: Addressing Gender Inequalities in Care Work”, (International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, 2018), Saber más.
- Vijay Eswaran, “The business case for diversity in the workplace is now overwhelming” (The World Economic Forum, April 2019), Saber más.
