Anne-Marie Greene, Deborah Dean, Sarah Bartley and Caoimhe McAvinchey explore how a theatre company working with women in the criminal justice system has fared through through the pandemic.
In March 2020, the UK “locked down” in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In September, the Commission1 on a Gender-Equal Economy released its final report, Creating a caring economy: a call to action, which presented a radical alternative to our present economic model. The report noted that the pandemic had “given us some glimpses of what a caring economy might look like, in the ways that neighbourhood groups sprang up to support people especially vulnerable to the virus. But it has also showed us the many ways in which we have an uncaring economy,” the symptoms of which were caused by factors including “entrenched inequality, a neglect of wellbeing of people and planet” (Women's Budget Group, 2020, pp. 5–6). This uncaring was also noted at the center of the UK political system: The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee produced a report on the unequal gender impact of the pandemic concluding that the government “overlooked” inequalities experienced by women (House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, 2021).
These reports highlight a growing insistence on the significance of the concept of “care,” whether named as such or not. This article deals specifically with a case example in one area of the UK economy—theater, and on one aspect of significant gender inequalities—women with experience of the criminal justice system,—and how care is actively demonstrated in the practices of one organization—Clean Break...Keep reading on Wiley Online Library.
In March 2020, the UK “locked down” in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In September, the Commission1 on a Gender-Equal Economy released its final report, Creating a caring economy: a call to action, which presented a radical alternative to our present economic model. The report noted that the pandemic had “given us some glimpses of what a caring economy might look like, in the ways that neighbourhood groups sprang up to support people especially vulnerable to the virus. But it has also showed us the many ways in which we have an uncaring economy,” the symptoms of which were caused by factors including “entrenched inequality, a neglect of wellbeing of people and planet” (Women's Budget Group, 2020, pp. 5–6). This uncaring was also noted at the center of the UK political system: The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee produced a report on the unequal gender impact of the pandemic concluding that the government “overlooked” inequalities experienced by women (House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, 2021).
These reports highlight a growing insistence on the significance of the concept of “care,” whether named as such or not. This article deals specifically with a case example in one area of the UK economy—theater, and on one aspect of significant gender inequalities—women with experience of the criminal justice system,—and how care is actively demonstrated in the practices of one organization—Clean Break...Keep reading on Wiley Online Library.