ECON BC 2010 Economics of Gender

Professor Diane Macunovich, Fall 2002

1. Description:
The bulk of economic analysis purports to be `sexblind': it addresses the labor supply, consumption and production decisions of an undifferentiated `economic agent.' However, recent work by feminist economists challenges this interpretation, suggesting instead that this abstract `economic agent' is in fact a gendered (male) being. They argue that the androcentric and gender polarized lenses through which our culture thinks and speaks, mask the gendered inequalities of resources and power associated with the classification `woman', and prevent us from seeing and discussing the realities of the lives of women and other non-privileged groups. They suggest that a focus on gender helps us to think very differently about privilege, power, knowledge, and the scientific enterprise itself.

Our focus in this course will be on gendered effects in the U.S. economy. We will approach the issue of gender in this economics class in two different ways. In the most `benign' of these, we will simply try to identify the role that women play in economics and in the economy, in order to attempt to redress the androcentric imbalance which exists. This is sometimes referred to as the `add women and stir' approach -- that is, we accept the world as defined in standard economic models, but simply add a focus on women and their contribution. Carrying this one step further, we will examine how a number of the economic models must be adapted in order to `fit' women's experiences. In this exercise we will still be accepting the standard economic tools, but applying them and interpreting their results differently. We will also examine newly emerging literature which suggests that the standard tools themselves are flawed by their androcentric bias. Unfortunately, this literature is not yet sufficiently developed to present a working alternative to the standard economic model, but it does provide a wealth of critical comment on the discipline. We will use it to examine, among other issues, economists' assumptions regarding self interest, altruism, rationality, exogenous preferences and the impossibility of making welfare comparisons.

2. Course Requirements:
This will be taught as an introductory-level course with no prerequisites,
and is not appropriate for Economics majors who have already had Intro and
Intermediate economics courses! Students will be expected to attend class,
to keep up with the required reading, and to participate actively in all
class discussions. We will have several panels and role-playing activities
during the semester, and there will be one short (3-5 page) paper. The
preferred topic will focus on the role of gender in a non U.S. economy –
either developing or developed – and will look at that economy both
historically and currently, or in comparison with U.S. experience. Other
topics will be considered, however. The course grade will be based on the
following:

Class Attendance and Participation 15%
Performance in special classroom activities 15%
Paper 15%
Midterm 25%
Final 30%

3. Prerequisites:
None