Women and the Economy

Purpose of the Course

An examination of women's changing economic roles. Includes an analysis of labour force participation, wage inequality, gender differences in education, intra-household distribution of resources, economics of reproduction, and how technological change affects women.

Text

• F.D. Blau, M.A. Ferber and A.E. Winkler. The Economics of Women, Men and Work. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2014. (Referred in the outline as BFW)

Outline

0 - Why a course on women in the economy?

• BFW. Chapter 1.

1 - The family as an economic unit

• BFW. Chapter 3.

2 - The value of household production

• M. Waring. If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics. New York: HarperCollins, 1988. Chapter 11. 
• B. Bergmann. The Economic Emergence of Women. New York: Basic Books, 1988. Chapter 9. 

3 - The economics of reproduction: boys and girls.

• G. Becker. A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991. Chapter 5. 
• W.K. Bryant. The Economic Organization of the Household. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Chapter 7. 

4 - Intra-household distribution of resources

• A. Sen. "Gender and Cooperative Conáicts" in I. Tinker (ed) Persistent Inequalities. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. 

5 - Changing family structure

• BFW. Chapters 13 and 14
• S. McLanahan and G. Sandefur. Growing up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps. Cambrige, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Chapters 1 and 8. 
• A. Milan, L-A. Keown and C. Robles. "Families, Living Arrangements and Unpaid Work" in Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report. Statistics Canada, 2012. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11387-eng.htm http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11546-eng.htm

6 - Labour market participation

• BFW. Chapters 5 and 6.
• V. Ferrao. "Paid work." in Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report. Statistics Canada, 2012. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11387-eng.htm

7 - Wages and occupations

• BFW. Chapter 7.
• C. Williams. "Economic Well-being." in Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report. Statistics Canada, 2012. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11388-eng.htm

8 - Human capital theory

• BFW. Chapters 8 and 9.
• M. Turcotte. "Women and Education." in Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report. Statistics Canada, 2012. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11542-eng.htm

9 - Discrimination

• BFW. Chapters 10 and 11.

10 - Labour issues: Unemployment, unions and part-time jobs

• BFW, Chapter 7.
• V. Ferrao. "Paid work." in Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report. Statistics Canada, 2012. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11387-eng.htm

11 - Developed countries

• BWF. Chapter 16 from p. 355.
• BFW. Chapter 17 and 18.

12 - Developing countries

• BFW. Chapter 17 and 18.

• United Nations. The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics. New York: United Nations, 2001. Executive summary. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW2010pub.htm

13 - Economic development and gender differences

Download syllabus here

Comment from our editors:

This syllabus is part of the Syllabi collection on International Association for Feminist Economics. This course is suitable for undergraduate students.