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Rethinking the economics of gender.
In the 1970s, as women started to enter the labor force in unprecedented numbers, economists began to examine their roles as economic actors. The result was the rise of gender economics, now a major subfield with powerful data and new methods comparing the economic lives of men and women. Yet despite decades of progress, many of the most consequential questions about gender inequality remain unresolved.
In this bold and reflective book, renowned economist and demographer Shelly Lundberg argues that the problem is not a lack of evidence but a failure to challenge entrenched economic models and outmoded assumptions about markets and gender that have limited what the field can explain.
Why does occupational segregation persist? Why do "women's jobs" pay less? Why are men falling behind in education? And why do policies like paternity leave fail to change behavior? Drawing on more than five decades in the field and integrating insights from other social sciences, Lundberg explains signs of recent progress and charts a path toward a more realistic, socially grounded economics capable of meeting the challenges of gender inequality today.
Shelly Lundberg is Distinguished Professor of Economics and Leonard Broom Professor of Demography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association.
"An incisive overview of how economists' insights have advanced our understanding of gender inequalities at work and at home. Shelly Lundberg enjoins economists to better illuminate gender bias in labor markets, power in families, and declining fertility rates by applying recent insights from behavioral and cultural economics and other social sciences."—Paula England, National Academy of Sciences, and author of Households, Employment, and Gender
"Learn from this insightful and iconoclastic volume why one must move beyond Homo economicus to understand Feminina economica. Lundberg takes readers on a journey to discover how economics has tried to discover women but has not yet fully succeeded, and why."—Claudia Goldin, 2023 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
“A wide-ranging, comprehensive, and insightful examination of the current state of research on gender economics by a leading authority in the field. Lundberg provides a forceful critique and useful suggestions for future directions."—Francine Blau, coauthor of The Economics of Women, Men, and Work
"A wonderfully readable account of how the 'discovery of women' provoked new ways of thinking about economic and demographic change. Lundberg herself stands out as one of the most creative and thoughtful innovators in the economics profession."—Nancy Folbre, author of Making Care Work: Why Our Economy Should Put People First
"No book is more overdue, and no one better placed to write it. A role model who has shaped a generation of economists, Lundberg delivers a rigorous, fearless account of where economics went wrong on gender, and what the frontier looks like from here. A must-read."—Almudena Sevilla, CBE, Professor of Economic and Social Policy, London School of Economics