Feminist Economics - Critiques of Traditional Economics

Critiques of Traditional Economics

Although there is no definitive list of the principles of feminist economics, feminist economists offer a variety of critiques of standard approaches in economics. For example, prominent feminist economist Paula England provided one of the earliest feminist critiques of traditional economics as she challenged the claims that:

  • That interpersonal utility comparisons are impossible;
  • That tastes are exogenous and unchanging;
  • That actors are selfish; and
  • That household heads act altruistically.

This list is not exhaustive but does represent some of the central feminist economic critiques of traditional economics, out of the wide variety of such viewpoints and critiques.

Read more about this topic:  Feminist Economics

Famous quotes containing the words traditional and/or economics:

    I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    The animals that depend on instinct have an inherent knowledge of the laws of economics and of how to apply them; Man, with his powers of reason, has reduced economics to the level of a farce which is at once funnier and more tragic than Tobacco Road.
    James Thurber (1894–1961)