ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the work of feminist economists since the publication of Boserup has challenged theories and policy prescriptions of mainstream development economics in fundamental ways. It shows how the work of feminist economists has advanced development theory and policy. The chapter focuses on changes in the conceptualization and accounting of work, the links between reproduction and sustainable development, and feminist approaches to globalization and macroeconomics. The feminist focus on the “crossroads of production and reproduction” led in two linked but distinct directions—environmental concerns about the sustainability of growth and development, and a paradigm shift in population policies—in both of which feminist analysis, advocacy, and activism have played a critical role. Feminist economics placed a challenge to globalization from its beginning by questioning neoliberalism and its results in terms of gender in/equality. The economic crises of the 1980s and 1990s represented another test for the process of globalization.
