| Description |
xv, 174 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Series |
Economics as social theory |
|
Economics as social theory.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 152-166) and index. |
| Contents |
PART I: THEORY, FEMINIST AND ECONOMIC: Thinking about gender and value -- Gender and economics -- What about objectivity? -- PART II: APPLICATIONS: Value-free or valueless? The pursuit of detachment in the history of economics -- Towards a feminist theory of the family -- Household equivalence scales: theory vs. policy? -- Feminist theory and the income tax -- Feminist economics, empirical economics, and macroeconomics -- PART III: SPECIFIC DEFENSES: To economists, why feminists? -- To feminists, how feminists? -- Epilogue. |
| Summary |
Economics is gender-biased in its definition, methods and models. The emphasis on questions of choice and markets, on the use of mathematical methods, and on models based on individual, rational action reflect a way of conceptualizing the world which has a distinctly masculine slant. |
|
Julie Nelson extends feminist analysis of the influence of masculine norms on the development of Western science, by scholars such as Evelyn Fox Keller and Sandra Harding, to the specific case of economics. As well as evaluating the abstract core models of neoclassical economics, this book includes case studies on topics including the theory of the family, income tax policy and macroeconomics. However, the book does not simply berate economists for the discipline's failings; alternatives such as discarding all current economic practice, or setting up an economics solely for women or for 'women's issues, ' are explicitly and emphatically rejected. Rather, it presents the outlines of a less gender-biased discipline which would be richer, more useful and more objective. Such a discipline, informed by feminist theory, would be an improved one, for all practitioners and all subjects. |
|
While in most disciplines the feminist critique is well advanced, this is the first full-length, single-authored book to focus on gender bias in contemporary economics. Its author is a practising academic economist and a leader in the recent development of feminist economics. |
| Subject |
Feminist economics.
|
|
Economics -- Sociological aspects.
|
|
Sex discrimination against women -- Economic aspects.
|
|
Economics -- Sociological aspects.
(OCoLC)fst00902213
|
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Feminist economics. (OCoLC)fst00922764
|
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Sex discrimination against women -- Economic aspects.
(OCoLC)fst01114377
|
|
Economie.
|
|
Sekseverschillen.
|
| ISBN |
041513336X (hbk) |
|
0415133378 (pbk.) |
|
9780415133364 (hbk.) |
|
9780415133371 (pbk.) |
|
