From Gender as Exogenous to Gender as Endogenous in the New Economics

Abstract

This paper argues that gender is endogenous to the economic process. It demonstrates a two-way relationship between the economy and gender relations, and emphasises the macro level. It demonstrates that inequality in gender relations can have a negative effect on economic policy and economic outcomes. This integrated understanding of gender in economics, developed in feminist economics, is not possible in neoclassical economics because that treats gender, like any social structure, as exogenous, often as a given constraint on individual choices, or at most as a sex-disaggregated impact variable. Heterodox economics, in particular when applying a contextual view of the economy as embedded in social, cultural and political structures, allows for an endogenous analysis of gender. This chapter shows, with examples from empirical research, how this may be done in a systematic way, by linking feminist economic insights with various key heterodox concepts.