BRATTLEBORO — The idea that women should always work for less or, even better, for free, is the economic theory explained in Screwnomics, the subject and title of a new book by Rickey Garde Diamond that she will discuss at Everyone's Books on Thursday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m.
The event is co-sponsored by the book store and the Brattleboro branch of the American Association of University Women.
Despite a major shift in economic ideas over the past 50 years, few women can identify or talk about the source or influence of those ideas on their lives. Diamond hopes to change that.
“Screwnomics (How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change) is a book for women … who, until now, have wisely avoided a dismal subject,” she said in a news release, “and who want to know more about economics, if only to hold on to more money, but something has warned them off.”
Diamond says her book is here to translate economic history, terms, and definitions that especially disadvantage women, while introducing countering ideas and solutions that don't require a Ph.D.
“I include shameful tales, insulting metaphors, and my family's dirty laundry,” she says, “all carrying a common thread of women confronting an ultra-masculine, ultra-rational mindset, the social construct of our time that I call EconMan.”
In the age of “mansplaining” and #metoo, Diamond hopes to empower women to successfully negotiate the economic changes needed for a sustainable future by giving them the basic tools for understanding the micro- and macro-economy, while introducing solutions that women (and the men who love them) can use.
The book is illustrated throughout with cartoons by Peaco Todd that highlight some of the economic conundrums and situations women face.
A resident of Montpelier and a journalist, fiction writer, and educator, Diamond has long focused across genres on money, politics, and the changing American cultural scene.
She was a founding member of Vermont Woman in 1985 and continues as a contributing editor. She has taught writing, literature, and feminist and media studies at Vermont College of Norwich University for over 20 years. She is author of the novel Second Sight and received a National Newspaper Association award for her article series “An Economy of Our Own.”
The event is free and open to the public.