The International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), located in the Department of Economics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Business Administration, is partnering with the World Bank for an innovative special issue of its award winning journal Feminist Economics. The issue focuses on women’s voice and agency– their ability to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities.
 
The special issue, slated for print publication in January 2016 with advance publication online, will expand on important issues raised in The World Bank’s 2014 report, Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity. IAFFE’s unique worldwide network of scholars will use the journal as a platform to bring feminist voices from throughout the world into urgent policy debates that affect women’s aspirations, social protections, learning opportunities and economic participation.
 
“Although significant changes improving the lives of women and girls throughout the world have occurred in the past decade, many challenges remain,” said Dr. Ann Mari May, executive vice president and treasurer for IAFFE. “We expect the research in this upcoming volume will prove useful for policymakers and stakeholders interested in improving the well-being of women and girls throughout the world.”
 
Among the topics to be covered in the special issue are the impact of child marriage on girls, facilitating women’s participation in post-conflict peacebuilding, and the role of global gender norms in restricting women’s agency.
 
IAFFE seeks to increase the visibility and range of economic research on gender; facilitate communication among scholars, policymakers and activists concerned with women's well-being; and help expand opportunities for women, especially those in the Global South and from underrepresented groups.
 
Although other organizations have been formed in the economic profession in response to women’s growing presence in the discipline, IAFFE is unique in it has served as a catalyst for advances in feminist economics. Through its many activities and the publication of its award-winning journal Feminist Economics, IAFFE has sought to nurture an economics that focuses primarily on provisioning, human well-being and human development for the broad spectrum of the world’s people. Published: April 16, 2015