I’m currently preparing for a guest posting stint over at Feministe, which will start in about a week. I’m planning to make a series of posts about why women, and feminists, should care about economics. I’ve got lots of ideas of my own, but since this blog’s audience is often pretty skewed towards the econ side, I thought I’d ask for suggestions.
Economists, feminist economists, feminists who care about economics – what do you wish your fellow feminists knew about economics? Is there a particular concept that is often misunderstood? A branch of research they should pay more attention to?
If you make a suggestion that I haven’t thought up myself already, and I use it, I’ll be happy to credit you for the idea by name, link, or both. Of course, you’ll just have to trust me on that one.
This is probably a good moment to point out that I have finally secured myself a blog email address. It is: economicwoman AT gmail DOT com. Please send along your comments and criticism, unless you’re going to tell me to post more often. It’s on my list, right below “register for GREs” and “make sure you pass statistics”.
Future Feministe Guest-Blogger is Looking for Suggestions
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oh how exciting. I heart economics:)
I would love to see a post on how hiv/aids has disproportionately affected women’s socio-economic statuses (in a bad way.) There is plenty of angles with this, but one that has peeked my interest is about how hiv/aids status has affected women’s property rights. I am speaking mostly in the global south, I am less clear on how this issue looks domestically. But I’d be interested:)
-Also. I think some solid debunking is required of folks who say that studies show that women get paid about the same as men.
I’d like an analysis of gender pay parity issues, and the reasons women still only make 3/4 of what men do.
What Amanda said, with a particular eye towards offering solid economic defenses to the classic charge that the Labor Dept. stats actually lie, and there is no pay gap.
How capitalism loves and in fact rewards discrimination, especially racial discrimination, and arguments that the most efficient option is to not discriminate are wrong because people’s racism and sexism are stronger than their “rationalism.”
@Sonia: Here’s some solid debunking from the US Census. It’s long and dense but many of the charts are demonstrative and shocking. Male physicans make nearly twice the salary of female physicians, for example, but it also talks about which jobs pay more on average and how gender is broken down within occupations.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-15.pdf
The economics department at my college holds an annual lunch for women economics majors. I’ve gone the past two years, and both times, the conversation went something along the lines of, “Isn’t it uncomfortable to be the only female student in most of your classes?” “Yeah, it’s weird.” And that was pretty much the extent of it. Any ideas for a more productive discussion?
As a feminist economist I’m just so excited to see your plans as a guest blogger here. I’d like to see you look at the economic counter-arguments to the paid maternity leave will cause discrimination against women argument.
I just posted this over at economicwoman’s place, so I thought I’d repeat it here. Similar to Amanda’s ask, but more specific I think:
I’d love to see some knowledgeable and expert discussion of the gender pay gap. I have heard quite a lot recently about how the gap now is just because women take time off to have children and over a lifetime that 5 years (say) out explains the difference.
Firstly, I don’t know whether that is true.
Secondly, this is used by some neoclassical economists (I think) as basically the end of the story. That explains the gender pay gap, so the gender pay gap is therefore not something to complain about. That rings false and inadequate to me – an economic system that penalises women for a biological inevitability (ie they have the children so chances are they are the ones who will have the time out of the workplace) has a major flaw, but I don’t know what the alternatives are.
To those of you interested in the gender pay gap, Echidne of the Snakes, who’s a real live Ph.D.-toting economist, did an excellent series on this a while back. See the series of posts here:
http://www.echidne-of-the-snakes.com/gendergap/
Sappho- thanks for that link! I was particularly interested to see that even in the 20 lowest-paid occupations, men still earn more than women in the same jobs! A useful statistic when arguing with those people who say that women only earn less because they tend to take lower-paid jobs.
Awesome topic. I’d like to hear more about how feminists should reconcile the systematic inequalities inherent in capitalism, on the one hand, and the difficulty of attaining financial security and comparative IRL power with men if one abandons it, on the other.
I’d like to see some real world applications for individuals. So much of the economic info aimed at women is fluff in Glamour or the Suze Ormond “how do you feel about your money?” techniques that I lose the plot. I want information on how to set up an honest to god working budget, maybe software you can use to help when your math is made of fail, etc. I’ve got Econ 101, but what I need is like Econ 102 and 201.
For example, one of the most influential economic blog posts for me was a post at Bitch PhD on why the Yours, Mine, and Ours model is best for young marrieds. I use it now.
I think it would be interesting to discuss international development economics. It seems to me that there’s an awful lot of evidence out there that proves that empowering womyn in those “developing” countries is the key to economic growth.
I would also like to hear about the role of economics as more than pro-free market capitalism. I think that economics can be useful to all systems since it really is a science of decision-making, more about bettering the means than entirely changing the ends we’re working for.
How about some discussion on the issue of food prices in urban vs rural and ethnic vs non ethnic areas in the US (ie as in Chinatown vs Atlanta or Appalachia vs Manhattan) and how women have to adapt to them?
[...] for all the great input – you folks have made planning my posts much easier. Over the next couple weeks I’ll do my [...]
Theory of externalities – as pertains to how the choices of other members of one’s gender affects one’s labor market experience (e.g. reproductive choices of women in general affect labor market treatment of a woman whether she intends to have children or not)
Game theory in general and bargaining theory in particular – as pertains to how outside options affect the distribution of gains in a bargain (e.g. if women have higher standards than male partners about the upkeep of a home, then in equilibrium in typical bargaining models they will bear more of the burden for upkeep)
Also behavioral game theory – as pertains to differences in negotiating style of men and women and how this affects compensation differences (e.g. men ask for more stuff without apology)
The Schelling segregation model – just because anyone interested in racism and race relations (as feminists often are) ought to know about it
And one econometric/statistical concept: selection bias and selection effects – as pertains to interpreting every causal statement that ever gets made about the effects of various life choices people make for themselves
How women with disabilities and women who raise children with disabilities fare in our economy. My son has autism and the divorce rate among families like ours is a full 80%. Which means a lot of single mothers raising children with disabilities in a situation where there are astronomic medical/therapy costs, etc. How do they manage. How will this delicate balance be effected by a recession.
Are they more than other single moms turned away from housing, from jobs.