Feminist Economics: Counting the Work That Keeps the World Running
Care work, household production, gender and the labor market, and how economics changes when it counts the unpaid work that keeps every economy running. Study it 1-on-1 with expert professors.
Feminist Economics is one of the focuses you can choose in Elton's Heterodox Economics graduate certificate and master's concentration. Study it in depth, compare it with other traditions, or build your own synthesis, guided by professors who know each school well.
Start Immediately. $18,000 Total Tuition. Graduate Certificate Option.
- 1-on-1 Expert Professors
- Study Any School Side by Side
- 100% Remote & Flexible
- Keep Your Job
What Is Feminist Economics?
Cooking, cleaning, raising children, and caring for the sick and elderly are some of the most valuable work in any economy, yet GDP leaves almost all of it out. Feminist economics starts by asking what changes when we count that work, and who does it.
The field grew from Margaret Reid's 1934 study of household production, Marilyn Waring's If Women Counted, and the founding of the International Association for Feminist Economics in 1992. Nancy Folbre, Diane Elson, Julie Nelson, and Bina Agarwal extended it to care, macroeconomic policy, method, and land rights. Claudia Goldin's 2023 Nobel Prize brought research on women's work and pay to a wide audience.
You will study the theory, learn the data and methods, such as time-use surveys and gender budgeting, and apply them to questions about work, family, and policy that matter in your own life and community.
Make the Invisible Economy Visible
These are the kinds of questions you can explore with your professors:
- How much is unpaid care work worth, and how would GDP change if we counted it?
- Why does a gender pay gap persist, and why does it widen after children arrive?
- How are decisions about money and work made inside a household?
- How do budgets, taxes, and austerity affect women and men differently?
Key Thinkers You Will Read
You read the classic texts alongside today's research, so you understand not just what these economists argued but why.
Margaret Reid
The Economics of Household Production (1934).
Marilyn Waring
If Women Counted: the national accounts and unpaid work.
Nancy Folbre
The economics of care and the "invisible heart."
Diane Elson
Gender, macroeconomics, and gender-responsive budgeting.
Julie A. Nelson
Rethinking economic method beyond "economic man."
Bina Agarwal
Land rights, bargaining, and gender in South Asia.
Core Ideas
Care Work
Paid and unpaid care, the "care penalty," and how care shapes wages and wellbeing.
Household Production
Measuring and valuing work done at home with time-use surveys and satellite accounts.
Gender & the Labor Market
Pay gaps, occupational segregation, the motherhood penalty, and what policy can do.
Bargaining in the Household
How power, outside options, and norms shape decisions within families.
Gender & Macroeconomics
Gender budgeting, austerity, trade, and development through a gender lens.
Rethinking Method
Provisioning, interdependence, and alternatives to the purely self-interested actor.
Debates and Critiques
Mainstream labor economists study gender gaps with standard tools and sometimes reach different conclusions about their causes. Feminist economists debate how far to work within or against the mainstream framework, and how to value unpaid work without commodifying it. You will learn both approaches and the evidence behind them.
Elton's program is pluralist: your professors help you understand each school on its own terms, weigh it fairly against the evidence, and reach your own conclusions.
Learn 1-on-1 With Expert Professors
Map Your Interests
With your advisor, build a learning plan around Feminist Economics and the fields and questions you care about most.
Meet Your Professors
Meet each week in tutorials of one to three students. Read, discuss, and get feedback on your work from economists who know the tradition well.
Build Real Work
Write policy briefs, build models, analyze data, and research the questions that matter to you, with your professors guiding every step.
Graduate With a Portfolio
Leave with research papers, analyses, and policy proposals that show how you think, ready to share with employers or journals.
Eligibility
To enroll in a master's program or graduate certificate, you need one of the following:
- A bachelor's degree, or
- Some college and 5 years of relevant work experience, or
- Proof of your ability to engage in master's-level study.
No standardized tests are required: no GRE, no GMAT.
Same Tuition as the Economics Program: $18,000
Feminist Economics is a focus within Elton's economics graduate certificate and master's concentration, so it shares the same tuition, financial aid, and timeline: $18,000 total, with a 10% discount if you pay in full upon enrollment. The graduate certificate on its own is $8,000.
- Start Immediately - Other programs require you wait until September or January to start. With Elton you can start immediately.
- No Risk First Month - If during the first month you or Elton decide that you are not a fit for the university, you will receive a full refund.
- Stacking Credentials - If you stop the program early, you still earn your graduate certificate in economics if you have completed 1/3 of the program.
Frequently Asked Questions About Feminist Economics
What is feminist economics?
Is feminist economics only about women?
Is Feminist Economics a separate degree?
Can I study other schools of thought too?
Other Schools of Economic Thought
- Institutional Economics
- Post-Keynesian Economics
- Modern Monetary Theory
- Ecological Economics
- Austrian Economics
- Marxian Economics
- Production-Side Economics
- Sraffian Economics
- Social Economics
- Georgist Economics
- Socialist & Collective Production
- History of Economics
New to the field? Start with our beginner's guide to heterodox economics.
