Description:
This book examines the writings of seven English women economists from the period 1735-1811. It reveals that contrary to what standard accounts of the history of economic thought suggest, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century women intellectuals were undertaking incisive and gender-sensitive analyses of the economy.
Review Quotes:
"In this stimulating study, Rostek adopts the radical premise that women writing about money across a range of genres should be classified as economists. She argues that while the emerging discipline of economics was marginalising the experiences of women as economic subjects, a great flourishing of alternative proto-feminist knowledge formation was taking place elsewhere, in the pages of novels, pamphlets and memoirs. Rostek's incisive readings allow us to appreciate the intellectual daring of relatively unknown writers such as Sarah Chapone, Priscilla Wakefield and Mary Ann Radcliffe while seeing even the works of Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Austen anew." -- Professor E.J. Clery, English Literature, Uppsala University
"In this brilliant book, Joanna Rostek not only recovers a fascinating history of women writers as economic thinkers, but also challenges our very understanding of what constitutes 'the economy' and its study. A landmark contribution to both literary history and the history of economic thought." -- Dr Paul Crosthwaite, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Edinburgh
"The Committee found your book to be highly thought-provoking, beautifully written and well-researched. It demonstrates how several late 18th and early 19th century English women writers analysed topics of central concern to feminist economics, such as the economics of marriage, property rights, employment and wage discrimination, and the undervaluation of care work. You make a convincing case that these writers should be considered economists, and that the insertion of their voices into the history of economic thought makes economic discourses and practices more comprehensive, pluralistic, and therefore, more realistic." -- Carmen Diana Deere (Chair), Jane Humphries and Maria Floro, Suraj Mal and Shyama Devi Agarwal Book Prize Committee