IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/femeco/v5y1999i1p45-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women's Agency In Classical Economic Thought: Adam Smith, Harriet Taylor Mill, And J. S. Mill

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald Bodkin

Abstract

In this paper, the issue of women's agency (defined as the capacity of a female economic agent for rational decision-making) is examined in classical economic thought, with Adam Smith and the Mills taken as case studies. It is concluded that Smith had relatively little confidence in women's independent judgment and hence in their capacity for reasoned decisions on economic matters. By contrast, the Mills, almost alone among classical economists, did trust women to make decisions in their long-run interest. With the arrival of academic feminism in economics, the time is ripe for a reappraisal of such implicit assumptions, and it is concluded that current-day economists would do better to follow the Mills, rather than Adam Smith, on this matter.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald Bodkin, 1999. "Women's Agency In Classical Economic Thought: Adam Smith, Harriet Taylor Mill, And J. S. Mill," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 45-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:5:y:1999:i:1:p:45-60
    DOI: 10.1080/135457099338148
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/135457099338148
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/135457099338148?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary A. Dimand & Robert W. Dimand & Evelyn L. Forget (ed.), 1995. "Women Of Value," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 141.
    2. Barbara R. Bergmann, 1974. "Occupational Segregation, Wages and Profits When Employers Discriminate by Race or Sex," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 103-110, April.
    3. Lord Robbins, 1970. "The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-00876-6, December.
    4. Lord Robbins, 1970. "The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory, chapter 1, pages 11-46, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Michèle A. Pujol, 1992. "Feminism And Anti-Feminism In Early Economic Thought," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 362.
    6. Nathan Rosenberg, 1960. "Some Institutional Aspects of the Wealth of Nations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(6), pages 557-557.
    7. Ferber, Marianne A. & Nelson, Julie A. (ed.), 1993. "Beyond Economic Man," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226242019, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sigot, Nathalie & Beaurain, Christophe, 2009. "John Stuart Mill And The Employment Of Married Women: Reconciling Utility And Justice," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 281-304, September.
    2. Giandomenica Becchio, 2018. "Gender, Feminist and Heterodox Economics: Interconnections and Differences in a Historical Perspective," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 5-24, March.
    3. Alberto Giordano, 2013. "Free Labour, Free Women. Re-appraising Harriet Taylor?s Feminist Economics," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(2), pages 45-62.
    4. Robert W. Dimand & Evelyn L. Forget & Chris Nyland, 2004. "Retrospectives: Gender in Classical Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 229-240, Winter.
    5. Michele A. Pujol & Janet A. Seiz, 2000. "Harriet Taylor Mill," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 476-479, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gillian Hewitson, 2001. "A Survey of Feminist Economics," Working Papers 2001.01, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    2. Samuel Hollander, 2001. "Malthus and Classical Economies : The Malthus-Ricardo Relationship," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 38(1), pages 11-23.
    3. Giandomenica Becchio, 2018. "Gender, Feminist and Heterodox Economics: Interconnections and Differences in a Historical Perspective," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 5-24, March.
    4. Elke Holst, 2006. "Women in Managerial Positions in Europe: Focus on Germany," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 17(2), pages 122-142.
    5. Mehtap TUNÇ, 2018. "The Role of Women Discrimination and Gender Inequality in Development: The Cross-Section Analysis by Different Income Groups," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 26(38).
    6. Amy Koritz & Douglas Koritz, 2001. "Checkmating the Consumer: Passive Consumption and the Economic Devaluation of Culture," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 45-62.
    7. Therese Jefferson & John King, 2001. ""Never Intended to be a Theory Of Everything": Domestic Labor in Neoclassical and Marxian Economics," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 71-101.
    8. Beneria, Lourdes, 1995. "Toward a greater integration of gender in economics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(11), pages 1839-1850, November.
    9. Astrid Agenjo‐Calderón & Lina Gálvez‐Muñoz, 2019. "Feminist Economics: Theoretical and Political Dimensions," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(1), pages 137-166, January.
    10. Salerno Joseph T., 2001. "The Neglect of Bastiat's School by English-Speaking Economists: A Puzzle Resolved," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 1-45, June.
    11. Alberto Giordano, 2013. "Free Labour, Free Women. Re-appraising Harriet Taylor?s Feminist Economics," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(2), pages 45-62.
    12. Robert Dimand, 1999. "Minnie Throop England On Crises And Cycles: A Neglected Early Macroeconomist," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 107-126.
    13. Mellor, Mary, 1997. "Women, nature and the social construction of 'economic man'," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 129-140, February.
    14. Hanappi, Hardy, 2014. "Schumpeter and Goodwin," MPRA Paper 59932, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Drakopoulos, Stavros A. & Karayiannis, Anastassios, 1999. "Mainstream Consumer Theory: Delay, Acceptance and History Texts," MPRA Paper 15434, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Bacon, Charley Arthur, II, 1992. "The abstinence theory of Nassau Senior and its critique by Eugen Von Bohm Bawerk," ISU General Staff Papers 1992010108000017589, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    17. Evelyn Forget, 2001. "Saint-Simonian Feminism," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 79-96.
    18. Drakopoulos, Stavros A., 2007. "Normative Issues In Marginalism: The Case Of P. Wicksteed," MPRA Paper 6684, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Bruce Pietrykowski, 2000. "Book Review Essay: The History and Practice of Feminist Economics," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 331-339, June.
    20. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2017. "When the opportunity knocks: large structural shocks and gender wage gaps," GRAPE Working Papers 2, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:5:y:1999:i:1:p:45-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.