Feminist economics broadly refers to a developing branch of economics that applies feminist insights and critiques to mainstream economics. Research under this heading is often interdisciplinary, critical, or heterodox, and discusses the relationship between feminism and economics on many levels: from applying mainstream economic methods to under-researched "women's" areas, to questioning how mainstream economics values the reproductive sector, to deeply philosophical critiques of economic epistemology and methodology. Heterodox literally means pertaining to other doctrines or other worship. ... Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. ...

Origins

Originally it largely stemmed from a set of observations by feminist ethicists, economists, political scientists and systems scientists, that women's traditional work (e.g. child-raising, caring for sick elders) and occupations (e.g. nursing, teaching) are systematically undervalued with respect to that of men. It is often considered part of Green economics since Greens list feminism as an explicit goal of their political measures, often seeking higher valuations for such work. It is also often considered part of welfare economics or labour economics, since it emphasizes child welfare, and the value of labour in itself, as opposed to production for a marketplace, the focus of classical economy. Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... An ethicist is one whose judgement on ethics and ethical codes has come to be trusted by some community, and (importantly) is expressed in some way that makes it possible for others to mimic or approximate that judgement. ... Economists are scholars conducting research in the field of economics. ... See also: Political Science Notable political scientists Kenneth Arrow - Nobel Memorial Prize winning economist who published influential paper on his widely cited Arrows Impossibility Theorem Robert Axelrod Duncan Black - Responsible for unearthing the work of many early political scientists, including Charles Dodgson Jean-Charles de Borda - 18th century mathematician... Green economics loosely defines a theory of economics by which an economy is considered to be component of the ecosystem in which it resides. ... Greens are people who support some or all of goals of a Green Party without necessarily working with or voting for that or any party. ... Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women, especially in terms of their social, political, and economic situation. ... Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine the allocational efficiency of a macroeconomy and the income distribution consequences associated with it. ... Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the market for labour. ...

Measures such as employment equity were implemented in developed nations in the 1970s to 1990s, but these were not entirely successful in removing wage gaps even in nations with strong equity traditions. Systemic study of the ways that women's work is undervalued, undertaken by Marilyn Waring and others in the 1980s and 1990s, began to justify different means of measurement of value - some of which were influential in the theory of social capital and individual capital, which emerged in the late 1990s and ultimately merged with ecological economics to become modern human development theory. Affirmative action (US English), or positive discrimination (British English), is a policy or a program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against. ... A developed country is a country that is technologically advanced and that enjoys a relatively high standard of living. ... Marilyn Waring (born 1952) is a renowned New Zealand feminist, an activist for female human rights, an author and an academic. ... Social capital is a socio-economic concept with a variety of inter-related definitions, based on the value of social networks. ... Individual capital comprises inalienable or personal traits of persons, tied to their bodies and available only through their own free will, such as skill, creativity, enterprise, courage, capacity for moral example, non-communicable wisdom, invention or empathy, non-transferable personal trust and leadership. ... Ecological economics is a heterodox branch of economic theory that addresses the interdependence and co-evolution between human economies and their natural ecosystems. ... Human development theory is an economic theory that merges older ideas from ecological economics, sustainable development, welfare economics, and feminist economics. ...

Jane Jacobs' thesis of the "Guardian Ethic" and its contrast to the "Trader Ethic" was also influential in explaining in ethical terms why a trading culture would systematically undervalue guardianship activity, including the child-protecting, nurturing, and healing tasks that were traditionally assigned to women. This led to the more general idea of systems as expressing either tolerances or preferences, and never being very good at both. Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs (born on May 4, 1916) is a U.S.-born, but Canada-based writer and activist. ... Jane Butzner Jacobs (born May 4, 1916) is a writer, activist, and city aficionado. ... Jane Butzner Jacobs (born May 4, 1916) is a writer, activist, and city aficionado. ... The tolerances versus preferences dilemma emerges in many problems in ethics, particularly in politics and economics. ...

Critics of the theses of Waring, Jacobs, and other feminists who explore the role of women in the economy, argue that protective activities, e.g. military and police and government, are just as much male as female roles, more so in times of chaos, and that these preceding theories are sexist. A striking example is World War II, in which women worked in factories while men fought - a reversal of the roles according to Jacobs, but entirely to be expected according to nearly everyone else.

Relevant External Links

International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE)

Journal of Feminist Economics

Useful Texts

Beyond economic man : feminist theory and economics, edited by Marianne A. Ferber and Julie A. Nelson. The University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Nelson, Julie. Feminism, Objectivity and Economics. Routledge, 1996.

Toward a feminist theory of economics, edited by Drusilla Barker and Edith Kuiper. Routledge, 2003.