Economics · social
Feminist economics
Definition
Feminist economics is a field of economic inquiry that critically examines how economic theory, measurement and policy are gendered. Its core insight is that the economy rests on a largely unpaid sphere of reproductive and care labour — childrearing, cooking, cleaning, elder care, community work — performed disproportionately by women, which conventional accounts treat as unproductive or outside "the economy". Feminist economists challenge productive/unproductive dichotomies, critique GDP's blindness to unpaid work, and analyse wage gaps, occupational segregation and the care economy as structural features rather than anomalies.
References
unpaid reproductive labour as economics' blind spot, productive/unproductive dichotomies, care economy framing
Overview
What it means
By re-describing households and care as productive infrastructure, feminist economics reframes policy: time-use surveys, satellite accounts for unpaid work, care investment and social protection become economic policy, not welfare afterthoughts. In sustainability debates it underpins the wellbeing-economy and care-economy agendas and the case that green transitions must not shift costs onto unpaid carers.
How it is used
Used in gender-responsive budgeting, care-economy policy, alternative indicators of progress, and analysis of just transitions and labour markets.
Why it matters
Policies built on incomplete models of the economy reproduce inequality; feminist economics supplies the concepts needed to value and sustain the care work every society depends on.