Women Economists in the 1890s: Journals, Books and the Old Palgrave

Abstract

Just over a century ago two noteworthy books in economics were published by women, contrary to the widespread modern impression that women's participation in economics is a recent phenomenon. Charlotte Perkins Gilman published Women and Economics (1898a, cf. Gilman 1898b), a landmark work of feminist and institutionalist economics (see M. A. Dimand 1995b). Rosa Luxemburg published The Industrial Development of Poland (1898) based on her 1897 Zurich doctoral dissertation. This distinguished contribution showed promise of the great abilities displayed in her magnum opus, The Accumulation of Capital (1913), a study that deserves recognition for its importance in macrodynamics and the theory of economic growth as well as in Marxian economics (see Joan Robinson's introduction to the 1951 translation). These two authors stand as giants in the history of economics–or would do so, if historians of economics were paying attention–but they were very far from being the only women contributing to economics in the 1890s.

Producing historical critical marketing studies: theory, method and politics

“…These have influenced participation in employment and remuneration. Failing to gain access or the patronage needed to obtain a position in a university could have prevented otherwise academically qualified, productive scholars from fulfilling their potential (Dimand, 1999). On the other hand, perhaps early female scholars were writing and thinking about topics that were too far from the mainstream of marketing thought to fully gain scholarly certification (Dimand, 1999; Madden, 2002).…”

“…Failing to gain access or the patronage needed to obtain a position in a university could have prevented otherwise academically qualified, productive scholars from fulfilling their potential (Dimand, 1999). On the other hand, perhaps early female scholars were writing and thinking about topics that were too far from the mainstream of marketing thought to fully gain scholarly certification (Dimand, 1999; Madden, 2002). Connected to this point, they may not have been writing in a “scientific style” (Hirschman, 1985) consistent with disciplinary discourse which led to their work failing to speak to gatekeepers.…”

Legacies of Altruism: Richard Titmuss, Marie Meinhardt, and Health Policy Research in the 1940s

“…There is no doubt that Meinhardt's career as a skilled economic researcher and analyst was permanently interrupted by the persecution of the Jewish community in Hitler's Germany. While she found a temporary home at LSE, which had a reputation for being relatively open to women scholars at the time, she had to contend with the inbred misogyny of the economic profession (Dimand, 1999;Groenewegen and King, 1994). She struggled to represent herself to them as on equal terms as a professional economist, sending Robbins and Beveridge copies of her article on the German Bank Act, for example, and Beveridge a copy of her paper on unemployment records 1848-59.…”