Teaching Feminist Economics through Student-Written Diaries

Abstract

As a heterodox, economics paradigm, feminist economics seeks to improve women’s economic status and reduce the androcentric bias in economics. Thus, teaching feminist economics involves teaching students different ways of analyzing social inequalities and how to access more emotionally connected aspects of human behavior. This article argues that using student-written ‘gender diaries’ serves as an important pedagogical device for teaching feminist economics, because diaries enable students to more fully consider social inequalities and critique the masculine-centered features of neoclassical economics. Furthermore, when the diary approach is used in tandem with traditional lectures, this may serve to challenge gendered pedagogical dualisms which pose lectures and diaries in gendered oppositions to one another rather than envisioning them as complementary human ways of teaching. A case-study is presented from a “Women in the Economy” course in which students kept a gender diary. An analysis of a survey of the students indicates that the majority of students found the diary to be both a pleasurable and useful pedagogical device, and recommended continued use of the diary specifically for this course. Students were less enthusiastic in recommending the diary for use in other economics courses.

Keywords:

• pedagogy
• feminist economics
• diary
• journal
• gender

Acknowledgements

I appreciate the participation of the students in my “Women in the Economy” class, and I thank them for sharing their stories with me.

Notes

 1 Such courses are often titled Women in the Economy, Women and the Economy, Gender and the Economy or similar titles, although not all such courses necessarily have a feminist bent.

 2 Note that not all women are feminists and not all feminists are women.

 3 Note that to avoid essentializing and universalizing about gender relations, gender stereotypes and traits are discussed in terms of “traditional” notions of masculinity and femininity, although such traditional notions may not hold for all individuals and/or groups and societies.

 4 Although some postmodernists argue that the concept of biological “sex” is also socially constructed. (See Bryson’s (2003) discussion of the literature on this subject in her chapter titled “Black and postmodern feminisms.”)

 5 Note that little attention is given in the literature to those who are intersexed or transgendered and who might therefore disrupt the male/female and man/woman dichotomies.

 6 Note, though, that gender categories are neither universal nor stable. They may vary over time, across place and context, and based on other social categories that intersect with gender, including age, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and other social categories.

 7 For example, note that within mainstream economics there is great primacy placed on analyzing paid employment and other activities that are traditionally associated more with men’s experiences.

 8 This concept of “strong objectivity” has similarities to McCloskey’s (1993) notion of “conjectivity.”

 9 I am thankful to an anonymous reviewer for pointing out this conceptual aspect.

10 These ideas have also been put forth by feminists who argue that material and discursive/ideological conditions are intertwined in determining women’s status. For example, see Walby (1991).

11 Since not all women are feminists, nor do all women have the same life experiences, there is some possibility that women’s increased numbers and percentages in economics may not have varying effects on making the field of economics more inclusive.

12 Some instructors have referred to a similar diary assignment as a journal, a reflection paper, or a reflective diary (McGuinness 2009).

13 E.g. Barnhardt and O’Quinn (2003) write that “The journal[/diary] is a feminist form of writing that easily enhances a feminist pedagogy.”

14 Or, at the very least, this may enable students to break down previous stereotypes and the status quo regarding women’s status with respect to cultural and social notions of “women’s place.”

15 I thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out.

16 The poster also upheld heteronormativity, which we then discussed in class.

17 There may be some non-response bias to be aware of, as those students who did not respond to the survey may not have found diary writing to be useful to them.