Feminist economics? What kind of "field" is that?
Just the existence of such a field seems ridiculous to me...
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Sign up to join this communityFeminist economics? What kind of "field" is that?
Just the existence of such a field seems ridiculous to me...
Feminist Economics is a broad field covering, broadly, how gender relates to the trade-offs involved in circumstances of scarcity.
Economics as a field was dominated by men for a long time. As a result, the questions that were asked were artificially limited, as were the answers that came.
Feminist Economics sets about correcting these historical gaps, and the power imbalances that result from them.
As it progresses, the work it establishes just becomes known as economics: it gets incorporated into the mainstream of economics. For example, see the work being done one measuring progress as something much more comprehensive than merely the sum of all monetary incomes.
Theres a book called Models In Political Economy: A Guide To the Arguements by Michael Barratt Brown which provides a basic overview of the many economic schools of thought.
There is a whole chapter which discusses this whole concept of feminist economics, however there is one section which helped me understand the point of view.
" Charlottee Perkins Gilman was perhaps the first to make the point that it is possible that a man could buy each of the services of the services of his wife supplies but it would be exceedingly costly.... The only other reference to housework I could find from my texts is a jocular reference by Sir John Hicks in The Social Framework (4th edn) to the reduction in the national income would be if man were to marry his housekeeper." (Page 96)
Classically the philosophy primarily advocates for changing the measures of how we view productivity to include house work.
The benefits, which this philosophy argues, is that we would then make policies with reference to both men and women since we are including household labor as apart of our economic measures.
Now, I've tried understanding how they avoid the issue of double counting and counting intermediate goods and services but have found anything.
It seems like it can be analytical, however It is too incomplete and fraught with measurement issues to practically use.
Hope this helps.