Dr Ann Mumford to present at 'Applying Feminist Principles to Tax, Benefit, and Budgetary Policies: An Economic Justice Workshop' in Hawaii

16 April 2012

Dr Ann Mumford, Reader in Law, Fiscal Institutions and Equality at Queen Mary, University of London assists in the coordination of an international, collaborative network dedicated to gender-based analyses of taxes, benefits and public budgets. "Feminist studies on taxation and budgeting" (FemTax), founded within workshops at the IISL, Onati, and the McGill Research Institute (Barbados), aims to provide an international forum for the study of the impact of gender norms and practices in shaping taxation legislation and policies in a variety of jurisdictions. This network includes the leadership of a several leading international feminist tax scholars, including Professors Kathleen Lahey and Asa Gunarsson (Queens University, and Umea, respectively), amongst many others. 

A major workshop is planned as a pre-conference to the Law and Society Annual Meeting 2012.

Applying Feminist Principles to Tax, Benefit, and Budgetary Policies: An Economic Justice Workshop

International Socio-Legal Feminisms (CRN 38) and its FemTax working group will host a day-long training workshop on the legal, analytic, and policy principles used to analyze the gender impact of tax, spending, and other economic policies within an equality framework.

When: June 4, 2012, 9 am - 4 pm, reception and dinner, 4.30 to 7 pm
Where: Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, HI: Iolani Suites 7-8, 2-4

Purpose: Women remain economically unequal in every country, and overall economic inequalities have been growing as neoliberal policies focus on 'going for growth' and capital mobility while ignoring human well-being. This workshop provides an overview of how economic policies in budgets, tax laws, and government programs reinforce women's economic inequality, and how to identify changes to fiscal and spending programs that can help move toward greater equality in all spheres of life. The goal of this workshop is to expand feminist use of gender-based policy analysis, distributional measures, and gender budgeting to examine how governments allocate resources to women's needs and priorities, and to construct alternatives to contemporary 'austerity' and 'growth' approaches.

Presenters include interdisciplinary critical feminist legal scholars specializing in law, gender, and equality with experience in tax, spending, and budgetary analysis:

• Asa Gunnarsson, professor, law and gender studies, Umea University, Sweden
• Eva-Maria Svensson, professor, law, Gothenburg, Sweden and Tromso, Norway
• Louise Langevin, professor, law, Lavel University, Quebec, Canada
• Kathleen Lahey, professor, law and gender studies, Queen's Univ., Canada
• Paloma de Villota, professor, economics, Complutense Universidad, Madrid
• Miranda Stewart, professor, law, University of Melbourne, Australia
• Lily Kahng, professor, law, University of Seattle, Washington, USA
• Claire Young, professor, law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
• Ann Mumford, reader, law, Queen Mary School of Law, University of London, UK

Each session will include background and reference material for use in applying feminist fiscal equality principles to participants' own work, and will provide time for interactive discussion with session leaders and with other participants.

The program will be followed by an informal reception for networking and further discussion. This program, refreshments, lunch, and reception are free of charge for those attending the LSA conference. All sessions and materials will be presented in English and some French.

To attend: For further information or to register, contact Ann Mumford a.c.mumford@qmul.ac.uk, Asa Gunnarsson asa.gunnarsson@jus.umu.se, or Kathleen Lahey kal2@queensu.ca.