Marilyn Waring

Marilyn Waring, born on October seventh, nineteen fifty-two, is a distinguished New Zealand public policy scholar, economist, and women's rights activist. She made history in nineteen seventy-five when she became the youngest member of parliament in New Zealand, representing the centre-right New Zealand National Party. During her tenure, she chaired the Public Expenditure Committee and played a pivotal role in advocating for a nuclear-free New Zealand, which significantly influenced the political landscape leading up to the nineteen eighty-four general election.

After leaving parliament in nineteen eighty-four, Waring transitioned into academia, where she gained recognition for her groundbreaking work, particularly her influential book, If Women Counted, published in nineteen eighty-eight. She earned a D.Phil in politics in nineteen eighty-nine and has since been a prominent figure in the field of feminist economics, focusing on the intersection of gender and economic policy.

Since two thousand six, Waring has served as a professor of public policy at the Institute of Public Policy at Auckland University of Technology, where she specializes in governance, political economy, and human rights. Her extensive experience includes international aid work and consultancy roles with organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme. Waring has been a vocal critic of traditional economic measures like gross domestic product, arguing that they fail to account for the value of unpaid labor, particularly that performed by women.

Waring's advocacy has significantly shaped discussions around national income accounting, emphasizing the importance of recognizing unpaid labor in economic frameworks. Her contributions have led to the development of alternative accounting methods, including time use surveys, which aim to highlight the economic significance of non-market labor. In two thousand twenty-one, she was appointed to the World Health Organization's Council on the Economics of Health For All, further solidifying her role as a leading voice in public policy and feminist economics.