*    Announcements:  For Thursday read Woolf and Perkins-Gilman.  Will get Essay1 on Thursday.

*    Guest Speaker:  Deborah Anderson
    *    Description:  Assistant Professor of Economics in Alberquerque.  Research interests:  labor markets in relation to minorities and
            women.

*    If students are interested, there is a list of suggested readings on webpage.

*    Feminist Economics: existing critique of what's going on in economics.
    *    Brainstorm of what the class thinks of when they hear the word economics:
        *    Marxism (doesn't figure much into academically studied economics)
        *    Supply and Demand- issues of markets
        *    Policy/Social Structures
        *    Male Dominated Field- thinks of itself as a "hard" social science
        *    Benefit and Cost Analysis- !!!Math!!! (Graphs, Charts)

*    Modern Feminist Critique of Neoclassical Economics (not Marxist Economics)
    *    Not enough women in the field, (in 1999, 34% of econ PhD's went to women)
        *    The solution isn't just to add more women to the field because women have masculine biases in economics.  We need to change
                social beliefs about masculinity in the field.
    *    1980's-now:  Question of assumptions/traditions in the field
        *    Theory vs. Empirical Work (Words vs. Numbers)
        *    Maybe economists should focus more on Theory
        *    Methods have too much mathematical/quantitative data
        *    Don't deal with subjectivity ("Are you happy?")
            *    Instead, measure happiness quantitatively
        *    Abstract theory, logic associated with strength, power, masculinity
        *    Qualitative, Subjectivity associated with softness, weakness, femininity
            *    "Soft" social sciences focus too much on verbal theories, qualitative data, intuition; not valued by economists
            *    Therefore values masculine emphasis and devalues feminine emphasis

*    How can we change this?
    *    1st Step:  Break associations of masculinity and femininity with quantitative and qualitative

    *    2nd Step: Value both qualitative and quantitative equally
        *    This will create a more inclusive economics
        *    It is naive to think there won't be biases in research based upon sociopolitical identity, even when only using quantitative evidence.
            *    Better to just be up front about biases
            *    Was quantitativeness thought of as masculine and therefore better or better and therefore masculine?  Does it matter?  Nobody
                    knows.
            *    It should not be just women doing soft, qualitative economics and men doing hard, quantitative economics.
            *    Numbers interpreted different ways can be misleading, not always absolutely objective.

     *    3rd Step:  Models
        *    Do we really  believe the assumptions we make in our theory?
        *    What type of theory is the basis for hypotheses?
        *    Sometimes economists forget that biases are inherent in hypotheses because a lot of the same biases exist across the economic
                world.
        *    Biases inherent in believing economic theory is the only theory
        *    Assumptions of economists:
            *    Everyone acts rationally, compares costs and benefits
            *    People act in their own self-interest (College will enable me to make more money)
            *    There are other reasons to act a certain way:
                *    Tradition (my parents told me to go to college)
                *    Consumption Value (I went to college to learn)
            *    It is silly to assume that everyone acts selfishly, women's traditional role is selfless, altruistic
        *    People who choose to do economics believe these assumptions and think of the world this way, do not always realize this bias

    *    4th Step:  Redefining topics of Economics:
        *    Markets:  thought of as the basic tenet for economics
        *    Feminist Critique:  it is limiting todefine economics as that which deals with markets.
        *    GNP is a measure of "all" goods and services produced in a year in a given economy.  It is used to measure the health of an
                economy.
            *    In order for something to be counted, it must be traded in the market.
                *    Domestic Work ("home production") is not counted in the GNP
                *    Home-cooked meals, laundry, taking care of kids, aging parents at home-- traditionally "women's work"
                *    Things in home not considered economics but it is because it deals with goods and services-- devaluing of women's work.
        *    Better definition of economics: That which deals with provisioning of all the necessities of life.
        *    How can something be counted if it doesn't have a price?
            *    Decide how much work would cost if it was being bought in the market.
            *    Decide how much "she" could have made in the market.
        *    Economics also doesn't always include environmental concerns.

*    More women and minorities might join economics if classrooms involved more discussion.