Written by Yael Atzmon
Using traditional economic metrics, work is generally conceived as being performed outside of the household, for customers or individuals outside of one’s family. Using that definition, women who are technically unemployed and stay home do not contribute any sort of traditionally measured economic value. Feminist economics, a unique branch of economics that incorporates the perspectives and economic participation of women in the economic field, asserts that work done by women, who have traditionally been the ones working in the home, should be included in economic metrics like GDP. This unpaid labor, which can include different chores like cooking or childcare, can be extremely significant. For the UK in 2016, unpaid labor in the home counted for 63% of GDP when analysts tallied up time spent on different household chores and used wages from the private sector to monetize this value (Moran, 2020). In that way, feminist economics conclusions would completely revolutionize the way in which economists think about long-term growth and GDP.
Generally, feminist economics seeks to challenge status quo assumptions about economic value and uncover the ways in which women have been excluded from traditional economic measures and opportunities (Moran, 2020). Feminist economics is important in that it creates a framework that focuses specifically on the inclusion of women in the workforce and reframing the meaning of work.
Feminist economics reveals disturbing trends through its unveiling of discrimination in the workforce. There is rampant discrimination in the job application process, as proven by multiple studies which have shown that resumes with male-sounding names have an advantage to identical resumes with female sounding names in the job process (Moran 2020). The disadvantage that women face when looking for jobs compared to men can be detrimental to their career prospects long term. Gender inequality is also present within the workplace as demonstrated through the gender pay gap, which remains strikingly rampant in contemporary society, with women earning 82 cents of every dollar compared to men (Kochhar, 2023). Despite decades of attempts to mitigate this discrepancy, the gender pay gap serves as a striking reminder that there is more work to be done. Feminist economics crucially highlights these enduring disparities and creates a venue through which they can be investigated.
The term feminist economics was popularized in the early 1990s and has grown to contain its own concepts and ideas (Agenjo-Calderón & Gálvez-Muñoz, 2019). When thinking about the future of feminist economics, it is important to consider whether feminist economics should be its own autonomous branch of economics or whether it should be integrated into mainstream economics. In the context of economics classes at the University of Michigan, integrating feminist economics within the mainstream would mean applying feminist economics ideas to pre-existing macro-economic and micro-economic classes. Contrastly, keeping feminist economics as its own self-contained economic framework would mean creating an elective economics class about feminist economics that teaches feminist economics as a differing interpretation to traditional economic ideas.
As it stands, feminist economics is being developed as its own self-contained unit. One benefit to keeping feminist economics in its own self-contained branch of economics is that this approach could encourage focus and deliberate efforts on these subjects. On the other hand, keeping feminist economics in its own economic sphere could hinder its acceptance into mainstream ideas. In that way, the existence of feminist economics as its own economic unit could allow complacency in terms of the full consideration of these ideas. Economists in more traditional economic fields may not feel compelled to include feminist economics ideas since this framework is isolated into its own category of feminist economics and inherently labeled as separate. If policymakers do not see feminist economics as a part of mainstream economic thought but perhaps as a more niche self-contained unit, they might not implement ideas about unpaid labor at home or inequality in the workplace when creating policy. In that way, feminist economics as a stand-alone framework might allow economists and policymakers to ignore the ideas of feminist economics under the guise that it is a specialized theoretical framework that has little bearing on the real world.
On the other hand, simply integrating feminist economics ideas into mainstream economics may undermine the importance of studying feminist issues and ideas. It is also crucial to point out that feminist economics has not yet been fully integrated and it is unknown if it ever will be fully embraced. Even if feminist economics does become integrated into traditional economic conversations, the full potential of the framework might be constrained by conventional ideas and the very limitations that feminist economics works to identify. In that way, feminist economics as a framework could allow more independent thought and exploration, without the constraints of convention. Also, integration efforts may result in less focused research into the ways in which women have been negatively impacted by traditional economic thinking and misogyny.
Overall, feminist economics is an important field of economics that reconsiders the way in which society values work that women have traditionally performs and sheds light on enduring societal inequalities.These ideas are extremely important and include thinking about unpaid labor when formulating traditional economic measures as well as looking at inequality in the workplace. Feminist economics has the potential to reframe economic value in a more inclusive way and shed light on existing inequalities. When looking to the future of feminist economics, its integration to mainstream economics or its continuation as a self-contained economic unit should be considered.
References
Agenjo-Calderón, A., & Gálvez-Muñoz, L. (2019). Feminist Economics: Theoretical and Political Dimensions. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12264
Moran, C. (2020). Why Feminist Economics is Necessary. Exploring Economics. https://www.exploring-economics.org/en/discover/Why-feministeconomics-is-necessary/
Kochhar, R. (2023, March 1). The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/03/01/the-enduring-grip-of-the-gender-pay-gap/#:~:text=The%20gender%20pay%20gap%20%E2%80%93%20the,80%20cents%20to%20the%20dollar.