Read on Twitter
1/ In the wake of the NYT article on Robinson, I got emails asking how to feminize history of econ reads & teaching. I didn’t find any online reference list on the history of 
economists, so here’s a half-baked one:
economists, so here’s a half-baked one:
2/ caveat: this is not intended as an exhaustive list. I’m not working on this currently (& it's grading month), so more selective reminiscences of what I read, biased toward my own research interests, & bundled in the framework I myself use to navigate this growing literature
3/My hope is that fellow historians add threads on (for instance @cleocz on XIX-early XXth century scholarship. Also, check her thread on history of African-American econ https://twitter.com/CleoCZ/status/1345317265676365824. Can someone thread on history of non-Western econs? And on feminist econ?
(for instance @cleocz on XIX-early XXth century scholarship. Also, check her thread on history of African-American econ https://twitter.com/CleoCZ/status/1345317265676365824. Can someone thread on history of non-Western econs? And on feminist econ?
4/ my sense is there are multiple layers of “history of economists” First one is:
I. RECOVER ERASED FROM CANONICAL HISTORY,
aka econ’s hall of fame in spite of their huge influence. This is of course case of Joan Robinson, on which there is no dearth of historical work!
economists” First one is:I. RECOVER
ERASED FROM CANONICAL HISTORY, aka econ’s hall of fame in spite of their huge influence. This is of course case of Joan Robinson, on which there is no dearth of historical work!
5/ there’s Aslanbeigui & Oakes’s “life & work” bio https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-provocative-joan-robinson , the Harcourt-Kerr book (from imperfect competition to Marx to capital) https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781403996404#aboutAuthors , a collective book https://www.routledge.com/The-Economics-of-Joan-Robinson/Marcuzzo-Pasinetti-Roncaglia/p/book/9780415756815 (there's also a wealth of paper on the 2 capital controversy)
6/ But stopping there is problematic, as it creates a ‘Maricurisation’ phenomenon, aka, “one is enough to check diversity box, always the same” – something Duflo discusses as ‘tokenism’ https://twitter.com/Undercoverhist/status/1186769722991353856
There are so many whose contributions needed to be recovered
is enough to check diversity box, always the same” – something Duflo discusses as ‘tokenism’ https://twitter.com/Undercoverhist/status/1186769722991353856 There are so many
whose contributions needed to be recovered
First step was doing kind of census: some work assembled in dictionary of women economists https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-biographical-dictionary-of-women-economists-9781843769026.html & collective biography https://www.routledge.com/A-Bibliography-of-Female-Economic-Thought-up-to-1940/Madden-Pujol-Seiz/p/book/9780415646079
8/ 2nd step was documenting their lives, works, contexts and resistances. This recent book does this for econ *all over the globe* – still a rarity https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-the-History-of-Womens-Economic-Thought/Madden-Dimand/p/book/9780367659783
3rd is to reinstate their contributions in standard historical narratives:
econ *all over the globe* – still a rarity https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-the-History-of-Womens-Economic-Thought/Madden-Dimand/p/book/9780367659783 3rd is to reinstate their contributions in standard historical narratives:
Fields in which recovery work has been done include development econ (from Deane and Hill to Waring, see references here https://twitter.com/Undercoverhist/status/1369222979587080201 )
and of course, household & consumption econ, with foundational contributions by Kyrk, Holt, Richards, Reid. Many references:
and of course, household & consumption econ, with foundational contributions by Kyrk, Holt, Richards, Reid. Many references:
10/ Becchio’s book covers home econ up to gender & feminist econ in postwar https://www.routledge.com/A-History-of-Feminist-and-Gender-Economics/Becchio/p/book/9781138103757 (list of reviews here https://twitter.com/CleoCZ/status/1369619565660041227)
There’s also a great dissertation on the transformation of home econ across the XXth century by Le Tollec https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02881966/document
There’s also a great dissertation on the transformation of home econ across the XXth century by Le Tollec https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02881966/document
11/ See also Work by Phillipy https://unil.academia.edu/DavidPhilippy and @MiriamBankovsky https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344678462_A_history_of_early_household_economics_Improving_the_family%27s_contribution_to_industrial_production_and_rationalizing_family_consumption
In most cases listed above, have signed their work, which was circulated, sometimes much discussed, so that recovery is possible, but not always...
In most cases listed above,
have signed their work, which was circulated, sometimes much discussed, so that recovery is possible, but not always...
12/ A further step, then, is to
II. RECOVER THE *UNCREDITED* CONTRIBUTIONS OF W TO ECON
Best known illustration of such trend is Shetterly’s Hidden Figures, as well as #thanksfortyping movement, which resulted in a just published book https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/thanks-for-typing-9781350150065/
II. RECOVER THE *UNCREDITED* CONTRIBUTIONS OF W TO ECON
Best known illustration of such trend is Shetterly’s Hidden Figures, as well as #thanksfortyping movement, which resulted in a just published book https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/thanks-for-typing-9781350150065/
13/ Such work is only beginning for econ. Backhouse’s work on Marion Crawford Samuelson https://twitter.com/Undercoverhist/status/986929173527711745 shows difficulty of getting evidence, in particular on contributions of many econ wives
Another challenge is to recover contributions of W in stats/econometrics/coding
Another challenge is to recover contributions of W in stats/econometrics/coding
14/ But sometimes (like when you write on theory at Stanford or MIT in the 1960s, but there are many other cases), there’s just nothing to recover.
So a large part of the historical work (and teaching) is also to understand
III. WHY WOMEN ARE MISSING
Again, various layers:
So a large part of the historical work (and teaching) is also to understand
III. WHY WOMEN ARE MISSING
Again, various layers:
III.1 Documenting individual biases/sexism/harassment (Jain's accusations on Myrdal https://thewire.in/women/oxford-university-economist-devaki-jain-sexual-harassment). Don’t know a lot of work on this. Backhouse & I worked on Samuelson’s gender biases ( https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3206042 , thread https://twitter.com/Undercoverhist/status/977303031472705538 ), found it hard & complex
16/ There’s much more on a second layer:
III. 2. Documenting collective biases
My reading of feminist econ is that they do just that (but this may be because I’ve read Nelson early on https://www.routledge.com/Feminism-Objectivity-and-Economics/Nelson/p/book/9780415133371 ). I’m not a specialist, so someone to do a thread on feminist econ?
III. 2. Documenting collective biases
My reading of feminist econ is that they do just that (but this may be because I’ve read Nelson early on https://www.routledge.com/Feminism-Objectivity-and-Economics/Nelson/p/book/9780415133371 ). I’m not a specialist, so someone to do a thread on feminist econ?
17/ Documenting biases requires delving into how econs view gender gaps & inequalities. See Pujol’s feminist history of econ thought https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/feminism-and-anti-feminism-in-early-economic-thought-9781852784560.html, @cleocz & @AnnieLouCot’s work on Edgeworth & wages https://osf.io/vpjec/ , Gouverneur on Mill https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulp/sbbeta/2018-43.html
wages https://osf.io/vpjec/ , Gouverneur on Mill https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulp/sbbeta/2018-43.html
18/ Also requires covering neighboring disciplines/fields, as seen in influence of Jacobs on urban econ, or the pre/post Nobel histories of Elinor Ostrom’s life & work:
See collective book https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3762608 , Johnson https://m.facebook.com/TrackNFieldTalk/posts/171516758105735 ...
See collective book https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3762608 , Johnson https://m.facebook.com/TrackNFieldTalk/posts/171516758105735 ...
19/ ...Dekker & Kuchar https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3588236 , or Locher https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326539417_Historicizing_Elinor_Ostrom_Urban_Politics_International_Development_and_Expertise_in_US_Context_1970-1990
20/Next level to study missing women is that of
III.3. Institutions
(institutional barriers to entering & staying in econ, & institutional strategies women deployed to break them)
Major ref is Rossiter’s 3 volumes history of scientists in America https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/women-scientists-america
III.3. Institutions
(institutional barriers to
entering & staying in econ, & institutional strategies women deployed to break them)Major ref is Rossiter’s 3 volumes history of
scientists in America https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/women-scientists-america
21/ Work has been done in engineering & CS, our piece on history of CSWEP has same goal https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3510857 (see new work on sociology caucus for comparison https://socwomen.org/about/history-of-sws/the-women/ ) Qian documents barriers & strategies at Yale.
22/ For long histories of institutions that welcomed US econs when econ departments wouldn’t (governments, statistical agencies, other dpts), see work by Dimand & May https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334902654_Women_in_the_Early_Years_of_the_American_Economic_Association Forget https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/1807 , Madden https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31146755_Female_Contributions_to_Economic_Thought_1900-1940
when econ departments wouldn’t (governments, statistical agencies, other dpts), see work by Dimand & May https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334902654_Women_in_the_Early_Years_of_the_American_Economic_Association Forget https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/1807 , Madden https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31146755_Female_Contributions_to_Economic_Thought_1900-1940
23/ Overall, documenting contributions to econ usually requires going beyond established boundaries of econ discipline and of academia at large (for reasons I will discuss afterwards). Most of these were civil servants, wives, activists, translators...
contributions to econ usually requires going beyond established boundaries of econ discipline and of academia at large (for reasons I will discuss afterwards). Most of these were civil servants, wives, activists, translators...
24/ See for instance the casting of @F_Allisson at UNIL teaches a whole history of econ course by relying exclusively on women contributions : Luxemburg, Webb, Robinson, Goldschmidt-Clermont, and Duflo http://francois.allisson.co/pdf/syllabus-epfl-2018-2020.pdf
25/ I'll finally note that there are few econ autobiographies on which to rely, like Strober’s https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sharing-work (I hope for more in the next decade: Janet, the world is looking at you).
Too few interviews as well (one great exception is https://www.routledge.com/Engendering-Economics-Conversations-with-Women-Economists-in-the-United/Emami-Olson/p/book/9780415205566
econ autobiographies on which to rely, like Strober’s https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sharing-work (I hope for more in the next decade: Janet, the world is looking at you). Too few interviews as well (one great exception is https://www.routledge.com/Engendering-Economics-Conversations-with-Women-Economists-in-the-United/Emami-Olson/p/book/9780415205566
26/There are several books on econs under way, so expendable list here
my goal was to provide framework to navigate literature, not to list article/blogs/podcast/movies on such econ.
But there are tons of great resources, feel free to add refs on your model role below
end
econs under way, so expendable list heremy goal was to provide framework to navigate literature, not to list article/blogs/podcast/movies on such
econ.But there are tons of great resources, feel free to add refs on your model role below
end
Afterthoughts: Under "explaining missing women: institutions," I'll add Cohen's highlighting paper on 's fight to create a space within URPE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330524874_The_radical_roots_of_feminism_in_economics
's fight to create a space within URPE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330524874_The_radical_roots_of_feminism_in_economics
What's coming next in terms of diverse histories of economics (gender, race, geography, approaches) can be seen in program of forth HET Diversity Caucus conference, online May 24-25 https://sites.google.com/view/diversityhet
