Author: Rickey Gard Diamond

Rickey Gard Diamond’s latest book, Screwnomics, is prompting EconoGirlfriend Conversations around the country, many sponsored by The Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom., and the educational nonprofit An Economy of Our Own. Learn more at www.screwnomics.org and www.WILPFUS.org.

Why Barbie, Greta and You Should Invest in a Better World

Even when she’s got money to invest, a woman’s lack of knowledge often means she still entrusts her money decisions to men. Should she sell her diamonds and put them into bonds or real estate?

In the aftermath of Barbie, we must not discount the huge economic changes that have arisen for women since she was created in 1959. In the U.S., there’s a growing movement for wiser, more sustainable investing that better reflects women’s values. I’m hoping Greta Gerwig—whose film surpassed the $1 billion mark—will join.

In Traditional Economics, a Few Men Get Rich Quick and Easy—It’s Past Time for *Feminist* Economics

“The combination of the words ‘feminist’ and ‘economics’ was … laughable,” said Amherst professor and economist Nancy Folbre, now 70, reflecting in a video interview about the 1992 creation of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE). That combo is now gaining cred, thanks to the formidable work of Folbre and the bold individuals of IAFFE. 

“People don’t realize they can choose differently. We all believe in democracy. So why not democracy for the economic system?” asked Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein, associate professor of global development at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Why Banking for the Public Good Is No Pipe Dream

A trio of bank runs at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature and Silvergate Bank probably has you sitting up and paying attention, possibly biting your nails. Is this the beginning of another financial unraveling? How could a tech bank as important and big as SVB go broke? Wall Street goes by rules different from those applied to you and me.

How to Stop Taxing Our Families and Our Future

Children bring us happiness and shared hope for our future. Yet, the surest route to U.S. poverty is simply being a child or a mother. Other developed nations on average contribute $14,000 a year for toddler care. The U.S. invests $500. That’s not only stingy. It’s stupid.

Taxing women and their wombs hurts all of us. It’s a better plan to tax those who can best afford it.

As the U.S. Looks to Revamp the Farm Bill, Women Must Be at the Table

While the U.S. has created an omnibus Farm Bill for nearly a century, our mothers—especially when Native or women of color—have never had a say in where our government’s farm support money goes. Not until recently.

Now the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry is under the leadership of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Her hearings will mark arguments on the horizon we’d all be wise to notice. A whole new generation of younger, female, Indigenous, Black, Latinx and queer farmers are contending with land prices out of reach, and old attitudes that minimize the healthier, more sustainable production they seek.

Caring Work and Its Discontents

The basic problem in many fields today, including politics, is the discounting of so-called feminine skills we all count on—but generally fail to acknowledge by anything more than annual flowers and apples. Both nurses and teachers of any gender are paid as little money as possible, and command too few resources for taking care of their tasks. Because they care, this matters.

How Algorithms Enforce Women’s Silence—and How To Stop It

Many think of search engines as a public service. They are not. Gender, race and ethnic analysis need to be at the heart of business tools and development of software and digital tools, along with regulation. Simple technical fixes can automate and elevate or surface women’s voices in online conversations, so women’s voices rank with men’s.

“Sadly, the fossils of historic gender segregation and the official exclusion of women from the public square have functioned as the new bones of digital technology and the public conversations they support.”

Don't Fence Me In: Reproductive Freedom and Women Workers

Don’t Fence Me In: Reproductive Freedom and Women Workers

For centuries under common law, a daughter or a wife was the property of the family father or husband or, upon his death, the closest relative with a penis. Whatever was theirs was his, but most importantly the family patriarch oversaw her most valuable asset: her womb. In earliest medical thought, a womb was fertile ground in need of guarding and fences to make property rights clearer, and she to be plowed and planted with seed, quite literally semen.

We thought such laws and cultural metaphors were behind us. But now the cowboys of Texas have put a bounty on women’s wombs. The stakes are women’s civil rights as citizens, surely, but also financial ones.