Feminist Economics

3rd Week
Organization of Production:
State, Market and Household
 Organization of Production
Capitalism : dominant economic system and social formation
… an economic system; based upon private ownership,
freedom of exchange, competitive markets,
… a social formation which has interacted with the social
system of patriarchy,
Patriarchy : a system of male domination over women.
…also other social systems such as race and sexual
orientation have affected gendered economic experiences.

What makes a social event/ experience a social system?

Patriarchy and Capitalism
mutual benefit
 Patriarchy; ¨structure of constraints¨

– tries to keep women at home, busy with domestic (social re-

production) house works,

– Determines and limits women’s life experience (education,

reproductive rights, employment, dressing etc.),

– Constraints their political participation.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2014-results/en/gender-
balance.html
Capitalism benefits from patriarchal
constraints;
Results of cooperation of capitalism and patriarchy;

1. Wage gap between woman and man,

2. Occupational segregation,

3. Most women work in low wage, unsecured, flexible, part-time,

temporary jobs,

4. Glass ceiling, (invisible barriers which limits women’s progress in

workplaces)
Gender wage gap
Gender wage gap is calculated as the difference between median earnings of
women relative to median earnings of men.

Resource: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?QueryId=64160
Occupational segregation: Horizontal – Vertical
Segregation
Horizontal segregation is the distribution of women and men across and within
occupation and jobs.

Vertical segregation is the distribution of women and men across different career levels.
Mostly, men’s domination is seen in high level status in both traditionally male and
traditionally female occupations.

Table 1. shows six occupations with the largest number of men and women,
and none of them overlap.
 Women are overrepresented
in low-wage workforce
USA, 2013
 Low-wage workforce by
sex and educational attainment
USA, 2013
 Part-time employment
• https://data.oecd.org/emp/part-time-employ
ment-rate.htm
 Glass ceiling
A glass ceiling;

is a metaphor used to
represent an invisible barrier
that keeps a given demographic
(typically applied to women)
from rising beyond a certain
level in a hierarchy.

The metaphor was first coined

by feminists in reference to
barriers in the careers of high-
achieving women.
 Elson, 1998
¨Businesses, States and Households in the Organisation
of Production¨
Organization of production Where is
household?
and consumption : economic sectors

Public sector Private sector

Goods and services

Goods and services
produced by publicly
produced by privately
owned enterprises,
owned enterprises
such as education,
such as foods,
health etc.
clothes, white goods
etc.
 Where is household in the organization of
production and consumption?
Households are conventionally excluded from both public and
private sectors since they are not regarded as producers.

Household Unpaid non-market oriented

Domestic sector Labour undertaken in families
and neighbourhoods.

Labour is a produced means of production, like

equipment, not a natural resource like land.

This labour produces vital inputs for the public

and private sectors!
a labour force available for work and
a variety of other intangible social assets such as
ethical norms.
Elson, 1998 : Businesses, States and Households in the Organisation of Production

Mainstream macroeconomics analyses the interrelation between the domestic, private and
public sectors through the model of circular flow of money income in a national economy.

Figure 1: Circular flow of national money income

INCOMES,Y (WAGES)

INCOMES, Y (SALARY)

HOUSEHOLDS TAXES GOV. SPENDINGS

GOVERNMENT FIRMS
Domestic
Public sector Private sector
sector TRANSFERS TAXES
I
I N
M E
V
S P X E
A O P S
V R O T
R M
I T CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES (C ) E
N S T
N
G S
T
S
E
X
P
.
 Feminist critique
• ¨…households, markets and states should be analysed as
interrelated sectors of the economy. Domestic labour, like the
market and state sectors of the economy, undergoes continual
change and restructuring. An understanding of the internal
processes within the three sectors, and the linkages between
them, is necessary to inform the development of economic
policy¨
Jean Gardiner. 1997. Gender ,Care and Economics, p.277.
Elson, 1998 : Businesses, States and Households in the Organisation of Production
page 202-204.
Figure 1: The Circular flow of output of goods and services

Output: Marketed goods and services

Commercial values

Domestic sector Public services

Regulatory Public Sector Public services Private
Depletion and Sector
values Regulatory values
replenishment

Labour services: physical,

Technical, social capacities

Depletion of human Provisioning values

Capacities and
provisioning values
 Households, a social unit that constitutes both
consumption and production space

2
Commodities
1
for social reproduction
Household income,
+
salary
Domestic labour of
women

3
Household output:
Paid labour

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Macroeconomics makes gender matter

• During economic crises ;

Wages / purchasing power decreases,

Since families can not afford to buy some goods and services; women
have to spend more time in domestic labour.

Macroeconomic policies may negatively affect households and social

reproduction works of women and cause depletion of human capacity.

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15 minutes break…

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People’s Century- Half the people