"Care Revolution - Ways to a fair distribution of care work". An event report

Report on the event "Care Revolution - Ways to a fair distribution of care work" on 27 May 2025 in Innsbruck

At the invitation of the Emancipation and Partnership Working Group in cooperation with Südwind Tirol in Innsbruck, Viola Schubert-Lehnhardt presented the care revolution network in the local women's library. The event was part of the series "Es geht auch anders. How feminism creates a good life for all". The series is described by the organisers as follows:

"At a time of exploding global defence spending, with increasing environmental disasters due to climate change and rising poverty, it is easy to despair. The media is full of horror stories, with hardly any reports of positive developments. There seem to be no alternatives to the current status quo in the world. And so it is hardly surprising that some people throw in the towel in resignation and wait for the world to come to an end.

But does it really have to be like this? No. Because feminism creates opportunities for a different world , a world characterised by peace, justice and cooperation. And in which a good life is possible for everyone.

In the lecture series "There is another way. How feminism creates a good life for all."

Firstly, there was a presentation by Kirstin Eckstein (social scientist, farmer, ÖBV Via Campesina) and Charlotte Voigt (PhD student, Institute for Development Research, BOKU) on the topic of "Sowing diversity, harvesting justice - feminist and small-scale farming for an agriculture of the future" and another by Rosa Logar (co-founder of the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom in Austria) on "Politics for peace - and against armament, patriarchy and nationalism". The third speaker was Viola Schubert-Lehnhardt. She presented the history and concerns of the Care Revolution network, as well as previous results and actions.

In the discussion, the necessity of the English name of the network was first questioned. The Austrians try to strictly avoid anglicisms. Their network, which pursues a similar aim, is called "Fair sorgen" (see their homepage), which would be much more catchy.

Then, on the basis of the objectives presented by the network, reference was made to the stronger focus on an unconditional basic income to realise these objectives.

Inspired by the debate on visible and invisible work (kitchens used to be separate spaces and therefore an area for invisible work), ideas on feminist architecture were another focal point. A few years ago, there was an exhibition on this topic in Vienna - the volume "Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet" can still be viewed, at least in libraries. At the moment, the design and construction of flats are still too much based on the idea that they are places of relaxation, and thus do little to meet the changing working conditions (home office) and needs of care workers. There are also still too few options for shared housing for people in different life situations. Historically, the Russian revolutionary and world's first female diplomat Alexandra Kollontai (see her book "Wasselisa Malygyna") and today, especially in the Netherlands, already had models for this.

A contribution by Viola Schubert-Lehnhardt