The NFB documentary about Marilyn Waring’s work, Who’s Counting?, changed my life.

I was in my second year of university in Calgary, Alberta, not far from where I had been raised. The small town where I grew up was an ideal place for kids. There was a lovely community and the world seemed to work as it should. I hadn’t thought about the socioeconomic implications of calculating Gross Domestic Product as the core measure of a country’s success. And it probably doesn’t occur to many others that this simple measurement affects matters from policy to funding to the general types of things we value in the world. But Who’s Counting? opened my eyes to this.

Marilyn Waring is a powerhouse of a human being. Born and raised in New Zealand, she has dedicated most of her life to addressing the inequalities in what we value in the world, in an attempt to have women’s work (often unpaid) considered a societal contribution that is as valuable, if not more valuable, than much of the paid work that contributes to the GDP.

(more…)