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Unit 3 - Insights from Feminist Political Economy

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Course: Political Economy of Antimicrobial Resistance and Infectious Diseases (2)
Book: Unit 3 - Insights from Feminist Political Economy
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Date: Thursday, 25 April 2024, 6:05 PM

Table of contents

Unit Introduction

Unit Title: 

Unit 3 - Insights from Feminist Political Economy

This unit was delivered by Dr. Sara Stevano, SOAS

Unit Description

The lecture is divided into four parts. The first is dedicated to a brief introduction to feminist economics/political economy (pre-recorded short lecture) and will provide the basis for an initial class discussion. The second part engages with some of the key insights generated by feminist analyses of agrarian transformations in the Global South, highlighting how a feminist lens can uncover important blind spots in our understanding of agricultural production and rural life. In the third part, we will consider the key principles of a feminist approach to research and collectively reflect on positionality issues. Finally, the fourth part, will be dedicated to a class discussion of a suggested reading advancing a Marxist ecofeminist perspective on the COVID-19 crisis and followed by a brief overview of a feminist analysis of the social reproduction of households and labour during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lecture the students will be able to:

  1. Describe the basic principles of feminist approaches to economics and political economy
  2. Identify the dimensions that feminist analyses of agrarian transformations have uncovered
  3. Critically reflect on how to integrate feminist insights and principles in your own research practice


Core teaching materials


Before the workshop, please do the following:

1. Watch the pre-recorded lecture 

    - Accompanying lecture slides can be accessed here. (link)

2. Have a look at this poster (link) by the UK Women's Budget Group on 'what is feminist economics?'

3. Slides for the live session can be accessed here (link)

Core Reading List


  1. Alders, R. G., Dumas, S. E., Rukambile, E., Magoke, G., Maulaga, W., Jong, J., & Costa, R. (2018). Family poultry: Multiple roles, systems, challenges, and options for sustainable contributions to household nutrition security through a planetary health lens. Maternal & child nutrition, 14, e12668. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mcn.12668 (link) 
  2. Naidu, S. C., & Ossome, L. (2016). Social reproduction and the agrarian question of women’s labour in India. Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, 5(1), 50-76. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303974740_Social_Reproduction_and_the_Agrarian_Question_of_Women's_Labour_in_India (link)
  3. O'Laughlin, B. (2013). Land, labour and the production of affliction in rural Southern Africa. Journal of Agrarian Change, 13(1), 175-196. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2012.00381.x (link).



Additional Reading


  1. Garnier, J., Savic, S., Boriani, E., Bagnol, B., Häsler, B., & Kock, R. (2020). Helping to heal nature and ourselves through human-rights-based and gender-responsive One Health. One health outlook, 2(1), 1-18. Available at: https://onehealthoutlook.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42522-020-00029-0 (link)
  2. Mair, S. (2020). Neoliberal economics, planetary health, and the COVID-19 pandemic: a Marxist ecofeminist analysis. The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(12), e588-e596. Available at: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(20)30252-7/fulltext (link) 
  3. Nelson, J. A. (1995). Feminism and economics. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(2), 131-148. Available at: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.9.2.131 (link)
  4. O’Laughlin, B. (1998). Missing men? The debate over rural poverty and women‐headed households in Southern Africa. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 25(2), 1–48. [Working paper version of article available here: https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/emseuriss/18996.htm (link)


Readings cited in lecture


  1. Bagnol, B., Alders, R., & McCONCHIE, R. (2015). Gender issues in human, animal and plant health using an ecohealth perspective. Environment and Natural Resources Research, 5(1), 62.
  2. Beneria, L., & Sen, G. (1981). Accumulation, reproduction, and "women's role in economic development": Boserup revisited. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 7(2), 279-298.
  3. Kevane, M., & Gray, L. C. (1999). A woman's field is made at night: Gendered land rights and norms in Burkina Faso. Feminist Economics, 5(3), 1-26.
  4. *Jacobs, S. (2013). Gender and agrarian reforms. London: Routledge.
  5. OLaughlin, B. (2007). Widows Weeds: Gender, AIDS, and the Agrarian Question in Southern Africa. IESE Conference Paper No. 29.
  6. *Oya, C., & Pontara, N. (Eds.). (2015). Rural wage employment in developing countries: theory, evidence, and policy. London: Routledge.
  7. *Quisumbing, A. R., Rubin, D., Manfre, C., Waithanji, E., Van den Bold, M., Olney, D., ... & Meinzen-Dick, R. (2015). Gender, assets, and market-oriented agriculture: learning from high-value crop and livestock projects in Africa and Asia. Agriculture and human values, 32(4), 705-725.
  8. *Sender, J., Oya, C., and C. Cramer (2006) Women Working for Wages: Putting Flesh on the Bones of a Rural Labour Market Survey in Mozambique, Journal of Southern African Studies, 32(2): 313-333.
  9. Sulle, E., & Dancer, H. (2020). Gender, politics and sugarcane commercialisation in Tanzania. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 47(5), 973-992.
  10. Whitehead, A., & Tsikata, D. (2003). Policy discourses on women's land rights in Sub–Saharan Africa: The implications of the re–turn to the Customary. Journal of Agrarian Change, 3(1‐2), 67-112.
  11. *Winders, J., & Smith, B. E. (2019). Social reproduction and capitalist production: A genealogy of dominant imaginaries. Progress in Human Geography, 43(5), 871-889.

Additional materials


1. What is feminist economics? See a simple explanation (link) by the UK Women's Budget Group (please have a look at this poster before the live class)


2. Podcast: African Feminist and Anti-Capitalist Responses to COVID-19: Labor, Health and Ecological Question‪s, Ruth Nyambura in conversation with Salimah Valiani, Max Ajl and Ruth Castel-Branco

 


3. Short video on 'It is time: Gendered time use in agriculture-nutrition pathways' based on research led by Deborah Johnston, and associated blog post (link)

It is time: Gendered time use in agriculture-nutrition pathways from A4NH on Vimeo.