Feminist Perspectives on Care and Macroeconomic Modeling: Introduction to the Special Issue

Macroeconomic models and associated policy analyses have long focused exclusively on market production, ignoring gender and care. Decades of feminist economic research, policy analysis, and activism around gender, care, and unpaid work have provided strong intellectual foundations for redressing this lacuna. This special issue represents the collaborative theoretical modeling work of a multidisciplinary group formed to respond to that gap. This introduction to the special issue situates this work in the wider gender and macroeconomics literature, beginning with some notes on the role of mathematical modeling in feminist economics. A key conclusion that emerges from this introductory review is that while some polices, especially greater public funding of care needs, can alleviate the inequities embedded in the gendered provision of care, more equitable and sustainable development and growth are unlikely to result without a transformation of the systems of gender stratification that underlie care provisioning.HIGHLIGHTSMacroeconomic models and policymaking should center the economic and social contributions of caregivers.Care and unpaid work are fundamental to the functioning of the market economy.A transformation of the systems of gender stratification that underlie care provisioning is needed.No single solution exists, but macroeconomic models of care provide steps toward fixing gender inequities in care provisioning.