ABSTRACT
The remarkable development of feminist economics in recent years is informed by the recognition of inequities, suffered by women, of three quite different types:
material deprivation, deep-seated and far-reaching gender inequalities, which affect the economic lives of women, in the real world;
political disempowerment, the de facto (and often de jure) derogation of women's authority in public and private decision-making processes which reinforces material deprivation;
theoretical degradation, the neglect or distortion of women's position and contribution in the world of theory—including economic theory.
These three issues are distinct but interrelated. Women's opportunities to influence the ideas and interpretations that claim to characterize and assess the real world have been restricted by the limitations of women's power and decisional authority in that world. On the other side, the tolerance and survival of material inequalities are aided by distortions in theory, which tend to obscure the nature and extent of that deprivation as well as its causation. Indeed, even our comprehension and awareness of material deprivation is inevitably linked with the theoretical framework employed to understand and interpret the world.