Ailsa McKay
Ailsa McKay (7 June 1963 – 5 March 2014)[1] was a Scottish economist, government policy adviser, a leading feminist economist and Professor of Economics at Glasgow Caledonian University.
ProfessorAilsa McKay
7 June 1963
5 March 2014 (aged 50)
Scottish
Professor of economics
Research on gender inequalities and the economics of the welfare state, feminist economics and universal basic income
She was noted for her research on gender inequalities and the economics of the welfare state, for her contributions to feminist economics, as a leading proponent of the universal basic income concept and as one of the UK's foremost experts on gender budgeting. She served as Vice Dean of the Glasgow School for Business and Society, and was also well known for her support of Scottish independence and as a key adviser to the Scottish government and First Minister Alex Salmond on economic and welfare state policies. Ailsa McKay is highlighted as a leading intellectual figure in the campaign for independence in Alex Salmond's 2015 book The Dream Shall Never Die.[2] Both Salmond and his successor Nicola Sturgeon have highlighted McKay's influence on Scottish gender equality policies.
She was a member of the board of directors of the left-wing Jimmy Reid Foundation think tank, and was an adviser to the United Nations. With Margunn Bjørnholt, she co-edited the book Counting on Marilyn Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics, which was published days before her death. The Ailsa McKay Fellowship, the Ailsa McKay Lecture, one of the foremost honours in feminist economics, and the McKay House at Lenzie Academy are named in her honour.[3]
Education[edit]
She held a 1st class BA Hons from the University of Stirling and a PhD from the University of Nottingham.
Death and legacy[edit]
McKay died aged 50 on the morning of 5 March 2014, following a year-long battle with cancer.[24]
First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond praised McKay's "astonishing contribution as a feminist economist, both in arguing the case for women into work, and in being the principal author and arguer for many years for the transformation of childcare that will make that possible,"[9] while Salmond's eventual successor Nicola Sturgeon described her as "an inspirational economist and feminist."[12] Pamela Gillies, principal and vice-chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, wrote: "In her far too early death, Scotland has lost an important force for good, the University has lost a greatly valued, committed and intellectually vibrant colleague and I have lost a dear friend. Professor Ailsa McKay will be missed by so many, but a scholarship founded in her name by the University she loved will inspire future generations of young, similarly feisty scholars to debate and to act for social change."[25] Professor Michael Danson praised her "lifetime inspiring a better kind of economics in Scotland and across the world."[26]
Margunn Bjørnholt and Marilyn Waring wrote that McKay "made a remarkable contribution to the field of feminist economics, as well as to Scottish society (...) through her combination of academic work and an active role in society. She was a founding member of the Scottish Women's Budget Group, which was founded around her kitchen table, later growing into an influential voice listened to by successive Scottish finance ministers and by others. (She) taught us through her life that economics and politics are not separate. She was incessantly campaigning for including gender into economic models and analyses, as well as for welfare reform, properly funded free universal childcare, and a citizen's basic income for all."[27]
A January 2015 conference in honour of McKay attended by academics and politicians paid tribute to her work. Former First Minister Alex Salmond said that "my regret is this, that I didn't take forward Ailsa's policies in my first ministerial stage."[28][29][30]
Ailsa McKay is highlighted as a leading intellectual figure in the campaign for Scottish independence in Alex Salmond's 2015 book The Dream Shall Never Die.[2]
The Ailsa McKay Lecture is the foremost honour in feminist economics, and has been delivered by: