Last Friday I went to hear Noreen Hertz speak and debate on the current financial crisis. After her introductory talk, Rosi Braidotti interviewed her and Edith Kuiper, a feminist economist, took her on in a debate. Union members and feminists filled the room. This was no surprise, since it was a talk in the Women Speak series. Noreena calls the current crisis, the end of Gucci capitalism. This was an era where business was good, the more the better, and government bad, the less the better. She is saying there is a collective shift towards more guidance by government. Its reputation is rehabilated. For example, over 50% of Americans would like to see more government intervention according to her. She calls this “a seismic shift”.

Also, this Gucci capitalism was male driven. Men filled the board rooms and trading floors. It was testosteron and according to Edith, speed driven. Not velocity, but the drug. Cocaine ruled the workplace, she mentioned coke being cheaper than a cup of coffee at one point. Noreena did mention she liked the G20 declaration, but missed any mention on women. To which Edith replied that the recent Afghanistion conference did include 5 pages on women.

I found there was little talk about solutions and where we are going. Except that we need less men. One man asked what will be the new moral imperitave. But this was not answered. Also, Noreena and Edith championed positive discrimination within board rooms and trading floor. More women will have to enter. They want direct action as waiting for women to rise to the top has been to no avail. The old boys club reigns and women are not even in the talent pools amongst headhunters. This immediately made me think, why don’t you start a headhunting company solely focussed at women? Why demand that government makes this into law? Noreena spoke about Iceland where women are now leading the banks and the country. Another lady proposed to kill income tax and tax resources instead. Noreena and Edith didn’t have an immediate response to this but said it was ideas like this we need.

There was mention of this being a debate. But everyone seemed to agree with each other. So I did not hear many controversial stances. Except from one guy in the room, clad in all white, who asks if women where all that different as leaders referring to Queen Victoria and a Russian Tsarin. He also tried to grab the microphone but a lady was holding it, while there is one golden rule: Never hand out the microphone or else you are not in control of how long someone speaks. Of course, this lead to hilarity among the audience as the lady wouldn’t let go of the microphone and someone from the audience pointed out that this was what the debate was about; Men need to let go.

All in all, I felt it was a challenging evening but did miss practical solutions.

ps While waiting before the talk started, I was chatting with a retired activist. He works on a paper regarding mobility in the region of Utrecht together with other organizations. I’m interested what will come out of that. His reasoning was there have to be alternatives. Not to say people can’t use their car or build more roads, but to give a better alternative.