From 18 to 22 March 2024, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and its regional networks – Tax and Fiscal Justice Asia, Tax Justice Network Africa, Tax Justice Europe, Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe, FACT Coalition, and Canadians for Tax Fairness – launched the 8th edition of the annual, global campaign: Global Days of Action on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights 2024, under the banner Taxing Fairly for Gender-Transformative Care.
The theme “Taxing Fairly for Gender-Transformative Care,” reflects the central role that taxation plays in promoting gender equality around the world. The five-day campaign made five key demands for tax policies and gender rights, including, the need for progressive taxation, elimination of regressive taxes on caregivers, tax transparency and accountability to curb illicit financial flows, as well as a UN Tax Convention that contributes towards gender justice.
TJNA’s Executive Director, Chenai Mukumba, highlighted that women are major contributors to unpaid, domestic and social reproductive work, yet our tax systems do not recognize these realities. “A feminist approach to tax systems is important because it acknowledges that tax is not only a financial and economic tool but also a reflection of local, cross-border, societal norms and power structures which are often disadvantageous to women.”
Addressing the campaign demands sheds light on the challenges faced by domestic tax systems globally. These include declining top rates, insufficient taxation of wealth and capital gains, and an overreliance on indirect taxes like consumption levies. Moreover, an ineffective international tax framework, compounded by a secretive financial industry, facilitates widespread tax avoidance and evasion. These challenges undermine state revenue generation and redistribution efforts, particularly impacting public services and infrastructure crucial for alleviating the disproportionate burden of care borne by women and girls, especially in the Global South where formal care systems are scarce.
Featuring 11 diverse activities spanning webinars, podcasts, in-person parallel events coinciding with the 68th UN Commission on the Status of Women, and an impactful social media campaign, this year’s edition has significantly advanced the cause of fostering a more equitable social organization of care.
As Âurea Mouzinho, Global Policy Advocacy and Campaigns Coordinator at GATJ, emphasized “this year, with the banner Taxing Fairly for Gender-Transformative Care, the campaign calls attention to the essential role that tax revenues can and should play in the recognition, reduction, redistribution, rewarding and reclaiming the public nature of the disproportionate burden of care work realised by women and girls around the world.”
One of the key highlights of the campaign was the “Framing Feminist Taxation for Financing for Care” webinar on day-3 of the campaign, which looked at the interaction between care and the tax system in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Speakers shared insights from case studies in the different regions. Maria Julia Eliosoff from FES Argentina who spoke on the Argentina case study, stated that “[the social organisation of care] is doubly unjust because it is both feminised and is mainly concentrated within households. The role of the State is extremely subsidiary, attempting to patch up gaps where households cannot reach and heavily relying on community involvement.”
Without accessible public healthcare, childcare, and eldercare, women predominantly shoulder the responsibility, often without compensation. They are also overrepresented in the care workforce, facing low wages, unsafe working conditions, and lack of social benefits.
The Global Days of Action on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights highlights the importance of integrating tax justice into the broader women’s and feminist movement and serves as a testament to the collective power and commitment of the southern-led, global, feminist tax and gender movement to continuing shaping narratives and policies to #MakeTaxesWorkForWomen.
The campaign ended on March 22 with a call to action to increase investments in care through fair taxation. Participants are currently reflecting on the different issues raised during the campaign and exploring the next steps towards gender-transformative care. Tove Ryding, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Eurodad noted that we must negotiate gender into the terms of reference for the new UN framework convention on international tax cooperation. “Ensuring that gender is solidly in those terms is a key battle and a first step to the systematic reforms that we are calling for.”
For more information on the campaign, please visit the Global Alliance for Tax Justice website or follow our social media accounts.
Join the Tax and Gender Working Group to remain abreast of these developments and help shape future campaign and policy advocacy actions to advance a feminist tax justice agenda.
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About the Global Alliance for Tax Justice
The Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) is a South-led global coalition in the tax justice movement. Together we work for a world where progressive and redistributive tax policies counteract inequalities within and between countries, and generate the public funding needed to ensure essential services and human rights. Created in 2013, GATJ comprises regional tax justice networks in Asia (Tax & Fiscal Justice Asia), Africa (Tax Justice Network Africa), Latin America (Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe), Europe (Tax Justice-Europe) and North America (Canadians for Tax Fairness & FACT Coalition), collectively representing hundreds of organisations.
About the TGWG
The TGWG was established by the GATJ in 2016 as a dedicated platform for its members and committed partners to directly engage in campaign and policy advocacy efforts on tax and gender issues. Its primary objective was to enhance the global integration of organisations working on tax and gender justice, women’s rights organisations (WROs), global trade unions, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), and civil society organisations (CSOs).
Over the past eight years, the TGWG has collectively coordinated eight editions of the Global Days of Actions on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights, as well as the publication of Framing Feminist Taxation Guides (volume 1 and volume 2), which provide guidance and recommendations for policy-making and advocacy that can influence and change our current economic and tax systems for a feminist future.
Other milestones of the working group also include the first global convening on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights in Bogotá, in 2017; the Bogotá Declaration on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights; and one edition of a Global Conference on Tax Justice and Gender Equality. In addition to these, working group members have collaborated on a vast array of opinion pieces, policy briefs, workshops, trainings and actively participated in global, regional and national policy spaces amongst which the Commission on the Status of Women, the High Level Political Forum of Sustainable Development (HPLF), and the IMF/World Bank Annual and Spring Meetings.
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