ABSTRACT
The genesis of feminist economics within academia was strictly connected with two phenomena: the introduction of women’s studies in academic departments; and the need to find an alternative to neoclassical economics as a whole and to propose an alternative to the new home economics’ approach to gender issues. Feminist economics emerged as the application of a new philosophy and a new epistemology to political economy in order to analyze gender biases in economic models. One of the major effects of the introduction of the principles of second wave feminism in academia was the emergence of a new research field: women’s studies, which were introduced into social science departments in the early 1970s. During the early 1970s, women’s studies gradually gained a position within academia. Differently from neoclassical economics based only on market relations, feminist economics considered the influence of social norms, love, power, and obligation on the economy.
