Product Description

This new and expanded edition of a classic work draws our attention to the often neglected role women have played in the development of economics. The work and intellectual history of eight prominent women economists of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries are studied to reveal how they strove to become successful contributors to economic science.

These women economists had vastly different lives and philosophies. Jane Marcet, Harriet Martineau, and Millicent Fawcett followed the goal of free enterprise and individualism and wrote on the subject when economics was still in its infancy. Rosa Luxemburg, Beatrice Webb, and Joan Robinson were all believers in some form of collective government, and Barbara Bergmann and Irma Adelman concern themselves with income distribution, in both developed and developing countries. The authors examine the respective backgrounds and discuss the intellectual histories of these remarkable women to throw light on the development of economics since the time of Adam Smith.

This book will be welcomed by students and scholars interested in the contribution women have made to the advancement of economic science.

Product Details

• Published on: 1999-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 130 pages

Kirsten K. Madden, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 22, No. 1
...leaves one with a clear sense of diversity in the history of female economic thought.

Kirsten K. Madden, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 22, No. 1
..a useful introduction to the subject of female contributions to economics and a statement about the importance of this research topic.

About the Author
Bette Polkinghorn, Professor of Economics, California State University, Sacramento