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The Center for Partnership Systems

Leading the shift to Partnership Systems and Partnerism

What Can I Do to Support a Caring Economics of Partnerism?

Do any of these statements ring true for you?

  • You’re frustrated with the current economic system.
  • You believe that our children are our most important asset.
  • You are convinced that the work of parents, teachers, and caregivers is critical to the well-being of our society now and in the future.
  • You believe that the chasm between wealth and poverty in the U.S. is unacceptable.
  • You believe that women and stereotypically feminine activities, such as care giving, must be valued and rewarded.
  • You believe that our current economic course is contributing to climate change and other environmental crises.
  • You believe that an economy based on “consumerism" leads to excess and waste.
  • You recognize that government and businesses should be accountable for their impact on our environment, communities, employees, and other stakeholders.
  • You want to make a difference in your community and the world.

If you resonate with some or all of these statements, you are not alone!

Many of us are awakening to the enormous flaws in current economic thinking. We see that the current financial wealth system often comes at the expense of our children, our families, communities, and the planet. Indeed, our economic system – which emerged from our domination history – does not support or give value to caring for people, starting in early childhood, and caring for the natural world.

At CPS, we are committed to a new definition of wealth, and new economic initiatives that recognize the measureable value of the foundational contributions of parents, grandparents, domestic workers, early childhood educators, and other caregivers. It is possible to have safe communities, racial, social and environmental justice, healthy food, good housing, enriching schools, natural and recreational space, and a sense of meaning in our lives. It’s time to be proactive and create the solutions we need for the 21st century, that uphold a caring economy that values gender and racial equity.

The Partnerism Movement

The Partnerism Movement is a CPS initiative to accelerate the shift from Domination to Partnership Systems. We start with a caring economics of Partnerism, a socio-economic system that values and rewards caring for one another, nature, and our collective future. We invite you to join the Partnerism Movement.

The Partnerism Movement

From GDP to SWI

The Center for Partnership Systems is building the Social Wealth Index (SWI), a comprehensive metric of the economic value of the real work of caring for people and nature. This index, essential in our time, shows what investments are needed for a better quality of life and a strong, resilient economy.

The Social Wealth Index

Caring Economy Resources

Real Wealth of Nations

  • In her book The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, eminent social scientist, Riane Eisler shows that the great problems of our time — such as poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation — are due largely to flawed economic systems that set the wrong priorities and mis-allocate resources.

Articles

Economics as if Caring Matters

  • Why is caring for children not a central part of economic thinking, metrics, and policies? Caring is essential for human survival and development. Yet caring is undervalued and underpaid. A caring economy calls for a different model of sustainable growth and development, as described in this article from the journal Challenge.

Poverty and Women in the U.S.

  • This article, published in the 2014 Shriver Report, shows that a major reason that one-third of American women live in poverty or on its brink is the failure of U.S. policies to support care work.

Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life

  • The status of women can be a better predictor of a nation's general quality of life than GDP–so found the pioneering 1995 CPS study Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life (by Riane Eisler, David Loye, and Kari Norgaard), which examines statistical data from 89 nations.
  • Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, published in 1995 in time for the Beijing United Nations Women's Conference, shows why we need new economic measurements: economic indicators that take into account the social construction of gender roles and relations as a key variable in how a society develops and allocates its resources. This CPS study supports the common sense conclusion that gender equity or inequity (that is, systematic discrimination and violence against women and female children) is a major factor for overall quality of life, not only for women, but also for men and children of both genders.

The New Economic Visionaries: The Caring Economy

  • Article by Riane Eisler, World Pulse Magazine, November 2009

A Full-Spectrum Job Creation Proposal

  • This report proposes that investment in the real wealth of our nation — its people — is essential to stimulate our economy, help families, radically reduce poverty and violence, reward women's economic contributions, save billions in crime and prisons, and produce the "high quality human capital" needed for our post-industrial economy. The Full-Spectrum Job-Creation Proposal was presented to President Obama and used by U.S. policy makers in drafting their final 2009 job creation program.

Our websites:

partnerism.org – join our movement to spread the word about Partnerism

rianeeisler.com – visit for more information about our Founder and President, Riane Eisler