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Care is a universal feature among all human beings and the way it is organized in the society is decisive for the given society.

However, it is typically characterized by asymmetries between women and men as a result of which the gendered division of labor and valuation of work have been central motives for feminist theories and struggles since the 1970s. The care economy remains as “the outlying other” of mainstream economics and the dominant approaches of social and development policies misconceives its relevance.

By assuming that women are by nature dedicated to care, the mainstream is (re)constructing care work as women’s work. Moreover, global and local care regimes are establishing new unequal divisions of labor among women of different social contexts and origins.

The WIDE Annual Conference 2009 provided a space for discussing these issues from different perspectives and for learning more about the current debates related to care, work, workers and working conditions. It also linked the care economy to the other aspects of economy particularly to the global financial crisis.

In June 2009, the Wide Annual Conference was organized around the subject of “Care Economy and Care Crisis”.