Women’s Podcast: What if women were the policymakers?

If women were more prominent in debates about economics and policy formulation, would the questions we ask be different and informed by women’s experiences?

On the latest edition of the Women's Podcast Kathy Sheridan discusses this with the Guardian journalist Dawn Foster, whose book Lean Out counters arguments made by Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook in Lean In, and the prize-winning economist Frances Weetman.

They talk about why, although men’s voices dominated the debate in the aftermath of the economic crash, the austerity that followed – the bailout of banks and the dismantling of many public services – affected women disproportionately.

This podcast was recorded for Lean Out, at the Mountains to Sea book festival's International Women's Day event at the LexIcon library, in Dún Laoghaire, on Sunday. Mountains to Sea takes place from March 21st to 25th, 2018.