ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the place of women in the academic discipline of economics. It presents the vital groundwork of feminist economists, particularly their critique of mainstream economics and their contributions to uncovering women’s history of economic thought. Joanna Rostek demonstrates that contemporary problems within the discipline of economics are relevant when investigating the period around 1800, because what counts as ‘economic’ today determines which topics, concepts, and modes of expression count as economic in the past. The androcentric bias of today’s definitions of ‘the economy’ must be made visible and challenged first before women’s contributions to economic thought from previous periods can come to light.
