The Global Research Network on the Economic Empowerment of Women (ReNEW)
2020 – 2025
ReNEW is a global interdisciplinary research initiative to support women’s economic empowerment and subsequent health outcomes of women and children. Women’s economic participation through decent employment is the next frontier of social change for women’s empowerment globally. In advanced and emerging market economies alike, women continue to be the largest group at risk for poverty and poorer social health outcomes. Globally, women of childbearing age are 22% more likely than men to live in extreme poverty. Women’s disadvantages in employment are a product of asymmetrical gender relations in which men dominate the paid workforce while women do much of the unpaid, care work. Given the linkages between poverty and health outcomes, exploring ways to enhance economic empowerment for women is an important public health issue. Yet investment and policies to improve women’s economic conditions continues to lag in both developed and emerging economies.
The key purpose of ReNEW is to understand, theorize, and analyze the paid and unpaid work realities of women, as well as the gender relations that shape women’s living conditions in a range of national, cultural, and policy contexts. We aim to explore ways to improve the economic empowerment and health outcomes of women and their children. The novel contribution of this network is our integration of diverse disciplinary perspectives to tackle the problem of women’s economic marginalization, using an ecological framework to derive innovative approaches to research and policy for this issue.
For more information, please see: https://wun.ac.uk/wun/research/view/global-research-network-on-the-economic-empowerment-of-women-renew
ReNEW Members:
Dr. Rhonda Breitkreuz, Professor, University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Karen Hughes, Professor, University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Amy Kaler, Professor, University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Laurel Sakaluk, Adjunct Professor, University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Bukola Oladunni Salami, Associate Professor & Director, Intersections of Gender Research, University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Solina Richter, Professor & Dean, College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Dr. Marian Baird, Professor, Head of Discipline & Pro-Chancellor, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Dorota Szelewa, Associate Professor & Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Family Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland
Dr. Charles Ackah, Associate Professor & Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Statistical, Social & Economic Research, University of Ghana, Ghana
Dean Lydia Aziato, Professor & Dean of Nursing, University of Ghana, Ghana
Dr. Elza Machado de Melo, Professor, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil
Dr. Ana Maria Hermeto Camilo de Oliveira, Professor, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Dr. Simone Wajnman, Professor, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Dr. Samira Hosseini, Professor, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
Dr. Claudia Bautista Flores, Assistant Professor, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
Dr. Mildred Vanessa Lopez Cabrera, Professor & Director of Educational Innovation & Research, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
Funding source(s): SSHRC Connection Grant, Worldwide University Network; Faculty of ALES, Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta; University of Sydney, Australia; University of Ghana, Ghana; University College Dublin, Ireland; UFMG, Brazil.
Are mothers opting out? Exploring underemployment among mothers with preschool children
2018 – current
Canadian mothers are a high-risk group of underemployed persons in Canada: they have lower labour-force attachment rates than women without children, fathers, and their counterparts in some OECD countries; and they represent over three-quarters of the part-time labour pool in Canada. This project explores mothers’ decisions to work part-time, or opt out of the workforce, and their experiences integrating paid and unpaid work, looking at outcomes for subjective maternal wellbeing, economic security, and gender equality. As part of this project, we examine the employment experiences of mothers and the contextual factors that influence their employment decisions when they have preschool children. We also explore the impact of policy contexts on mothers’ experiences of employment and unpaid work. Outcomes of this study will include scholarly contributions to address gaps in knowledge about mothers’ employment and the interplay of choice and constraints, and evidence-based policy recommendations to enhance women’s economic participation through employment.
Funding source(s): Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Who Cares? Alberta Parents’ Experience of Child Care Policy
2012 – 2018
This project examined the child care experiences of Alberta families and the effects of these experiences on family and child well-being. A significant gap continues to exist between the needs of Alberta families for child care and child care service capacity and it appears that a majority of Alberta families utilize non-regulated child care. This project contributes to our knowledge about the types of non-regulated child care that exist in Alberta and about the impacts of this care on family wellbeing. In this study, we document the child care strategies that parents use and perceptions of the impact of these arrangements on the well-being of children and families. In addition, we compare these child care arrangements to current standards of quality child care. We spoke with 109 mothers across the province of Alberta in 15 focus groups. Outcomes of this project included multiple scholarly articles and policy briefing papers. The findings of this study will be useful to policy makers in the development of child and family-centered child care policy.
Funding source(s): Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research, Killam Research Fund, Muttart Foundation, United Way, University of Alberta
Welfare Reform
2004 – 2012
This project examined the impacts of welfare-to-work policies on families in poverty, most of whom were single mothers. The study extended the literature on welfare-to-work using an institutional ethnographic methodological approach to link the lives of welfare recipients to larger political, economic, and social processes, thereby showing why welfare-to-work has not been particularly effective in assisting welfare recipients to achieve self-sufficiency.
Funding source(s): Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council