Researchers at the UVic-UCC examine how Catalan women are coping with the crisis based on the social and solidarity economy

For three years, researchers at the UVic-UCC have been examining the impact that the economic crisis which began in 2008 has had on the lives of women in Catalonia, as well as the strategies they have adopted to adapt to the new situation based on an alternative economic paradigm: the social and solidarity economy (SSE). Those were the two objectives of the "Crisis and female alternatives" project which has just ended, which was funded by a RecerCaixa grant from the "la Caixa" Bank Foundation.

The research was led Sandra Ezquerra, director of the UNESCO Chair in Women, Development and Cultures, under the umbrella of the Societies, Policies and Inclusive Communities research group (SoPCI), which she also coordinates. The project was also jointly led by Marta Rivera, director of the Chair in Agroecology and Food Systems, and the researchers Anna Pérez-Quintana, Rosa Binimelis, Elba S. Mansilla, Víctor Ginesta and Marina Di Masso.

The feminist economy as a conceptual framework

Their research was based on a study of the literature and statistical data as well as 49 interviews with women with and without links to the Social and Solidarity Economy, and interviews with key informants in the sector, including cooperative centres and ethical financing bodies at various territorial levels, in rural and urban areas, and in various professional spheres, such as providing care and attention for people, agroecology, housing and the creation of networks and communities. This was all based on the conceptual framework of the feminist economy "to address the complexity of women's socio-economic lives by establishing a dialogue between the productive and reproductive areas of the economy - a very different approach to the one traditionally used in economic science," explains Sandra Ezquerra.

Identifying the impacts of the economic crisis

The project identifies various impacts of the economic crisis on women in terms of their paid and unpaid work. First, it highlights the fact that they have greater difficulties than men in overcoming the recession, and returning to their previous employment and economic situation. Second, women's total workload, both paid and unpaid, has in many cases increased for various reasons. These include women joining the labour market to offset reductions in their household income, or the need to resume some care tasks that families had previously outsourced. Meanwhile, men were not found to have taken on more responsibilities in the home.

Strategies based on the Social and Solidarity Economy

The research also considers women's responses within an alternative economic paradigm, aimed at adapting to and coping with the crisis, and focuses on their participation in projects in the social and solidarity economy, such as cooperatives, unions, and parenting and consumer groups and associations. First, it identifies inequalities in access to the social and solidarity economy for women according to their socioeconomic status, their level of education, their origins or their family responsibilities.

Second, the fact that they need to spend more time engaged in economic activities to carry out the project means that they have to give up their own time and the time they spend with their family, which therefore increases the instability in their lives. The researchers highlight a "contradiction between the approach of many women interviewed, who call for giving life a central role, and the reality of their everyday lives, which entails a high degree of over-commitment to their professional lives." In many cases, these women continue to experience job insecurity, which they often "justify on the grounds of ideological compensation and personal satisfaction."

Finally, the project reports that these women's individual and collective empowerment is one of the main benefits identified by the interviewees who decide to join the Social and Solidarity Economy: "they gain self-confidence and acquire information and tools to deal with their personal situation, which is crucial for some groups such as migrant women or those with difficulties gaining access to housing," explain the researchers, who also say that relational networks providing mutual support are established within the group.