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Gender bias in economics and how this impacts women to this day. Listen to the podcast interview with feminist economist, Julie Nelson
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Gender bias in economics and how this impacts women to this day. Listen to the podcast interview with feminist economist, Julie Nelson

Welcome to our #183 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova


From The Purse


In this week’s newsletter, we highlight a short extract from The Purse Podcast interview with feminist economist Julie A. Nelson.

We talk about Julie’s research which proves that women are not more risk-averse than men, gender bias in economics, the impact on women and why economics is about ‘humans’.

Listen to the full podcast interview here.

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana


Gender bias in economics and how this impacts women to this day

Julie Nelson joins us on The Purse Podcast to talk about her research which proves that women are not more risk averse than men and why economics is about humans.


Julie A. Nelson joined us on The Purse Podcast.

Julie is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She was a founding member of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) and co-edited (with Marianne Ferber) the book Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics (sometimes called the “manifesto” of our field), published in 1993.

Her most recent books are Economics for Humans (2nd edition) and Gender and Risk-Taking: Economics, Evidence, and Why the Answer Matters.  She is editor of the Business Ethics and Economics section of the Journal of Business Ethics, and was the 2019 President of the Association for Social Economics. 

In this podcast interview we talk about (including): women and risk taking, gender bias in economics, the impact on women and why economics is about people.

Below is a short extract from the podcast interview:


Jana: You've written about ‘human economics’, and I absolutely love that term, and I do love the book that you've written, Julie. Can you tell us more about that; the culmination of your life's work?


Julia A. Nelson’s response:

Yes, in the book ‘Economics for Humans’, I brought together feminists work, realising the real economic value of caring work and my work on the business side, realising the real concern for human characteristics that needs to happen in business…

…the neglect of both of those has led to real deficits of economic resources going to care.

In the US, most times, the Bureau of Labour Statistics makes a survey, child care workers get less per hour than parking lot attendants.

People seem to think it's more worthy to watch parked cars than to spend a lot of time bringing up the next generation.

And of course, we're alone in the industrialised world, pretty much about not doing better on family leave, funding family leave and sick leave and a lot of other things that you really need to be able to do the care that keeps families and economies running. So the care side has been starved of resources.

On the other hand, the side that has resources has been starved of care. The idea that employers could actually care about the well being of their workers, could actually care about whether their grandchildren are going to have a decent environment to live in…

…So in ‘Economics for Humans’, I explain where this really perverse idea of ‘the economy as a machine’ came from; it shows how it's had harmful impacts in both those areas, and suggests some alternative metaphors.

I talk about a beating heart, which is what we think of the economy doing, producing and is also the seat of love and courage. Both of which we're going to need if we're going to do better in this life, and do better as a species.

I also talk about husbandry as a masculine way of thinking about care.

A lot of people when they think about care, they think about mothers and babies, and there's not a whole lot of room for men in that picture.

So I went back to this word husbandry, which nowadays mostly refers to like raising animals, but when you raise animals, you actually have to pay attention to their health, right?

You have to pay attention to the climate and the environment that they're in. And there is a notion of more masculine associated and it's simultaneous with economic production, right?

So it is possible to bring in these notions of carefulness and care into our ideas of economic production.

Not that that kind of economic production can't also be husbanded by women, but I just wanted to present something with which people who identify as male might more closely see themselves in…

..(to) tend a company the way you tend a flock of sheep…

Listen to the full interview here

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The Purse Podcast


We cover the following in our conversation:

  • Women and risk taking

  • Gender bias in economics and the impact on women

  • Why economics is about people

  • The need to be open to diverse views and perspectives

  • How the field of economics should address 'real world problems'

  • Why economists need to be more radical.

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+


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We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

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