Customer Reviews

Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The articles in this volume - from England's piece on the "separative self," to Strassmann's work on the rhetoric of economics, to Nelson's work on the goal of economic theorizing - are classics in the field, essential reading for anyone interested in the subject of feminist economics. If only mainstream econmics took this material more seriously . . . .

The best essay in this short collection is by Nobel prize winner Robert Solow, who points out the main fault of so called feminist economics: it is tangential stuff. This is obvious in reading the collection of essays which focus more on Institutional Economics (a branch of sociology), rhetoric, and anthropology. Most of the contributors buzz around the issue of the (patriarchal) family and use Gary Becker, another (very undeserving) Nobel prize winner as their whipping boy. But Becker's work on the economics of sleep and such like is also tangential.
This slim tome strikes me as an exercise in academic vanity publishing. The inclusion of Donald McCloskey, who got a sex change operation since it was published, reinforces that. Economics has a myriad of failings and short comings but having it colonized by even softer and shallower social "sciences" is not the answer. The contributors devote some space to explaining that their type of work is regard as sciences in most languages, English being the big exception. That seems to be where they are at: kitchen arguments, ignoring facts and solid axioms in favor of doctrine.