- The gender perspective reconfigures economic history by questioning traditional frameworks, sources, and narratives.
- From the 19th to the 20th century, female authors and activists documented women's work, property ownership, education, and political participation.
- Research in business and finance shows their role as workers, investors, managers, and shareholders.
- From pioneers to Nobel laureates and global leaders, a more complete and empirical narrative is consolidated.
The relationship between women, economics, and history is much deeper than is sometimes acknowledged. For centuries, women have worked, invested, taught, and theorizedBut their presence was often relegated to the background in the grand narratives. Today, with new perspectives and much research, that picture has been filled in with names, facts, and arguments that change the traditional approach.
The interest in telling that complete story is not a recent fad or an academic whim. From social historiography to economic and business historyFundamental works, critical reviews, and research agendas have emerged that encourage the integration of gender as an analytical category, intersecting it with class, race, and institutions. And all of this has occurred within a social context that reminds us that silence does not correct injustices or absences. neither in the public sphere nor in manuals.
Framework and key elements of analysis with a gender perspective
One of the most influential contributions to understanding how to integrate women into history was Joan W. Scott's approach to gender as a category of analysis. Her thesis emphasized that gender is a social construct embedded in power relations. and that cuts across institutions, laws, cultures, and markets. This went beyond the idea of simply "adding women" to a pre-existing narrative and instead questioned the very foundations that had rendered them invisible.
From that perspective, it is understandable why several reviews have described the relationship between economic history and gender studies as a kind of "complicated marriage". Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk proposed a more integrated agendaShe argued that economic history tended to operate with a supposed neutrality that erased gender dynamics, while women's history sometimes distanced itself from major economic processes. Her solution: interdisciplinary collaboration and a cross-pollination of methods.
Throughout the company's history, self-criticism has also been strong. The mistake of treating “women” as a simple variable has been pointed out.without rethinking the frameworks that shaped structures, markets, and practices from male perspectives. Recent contributions call for rethinking narratives, concepts, and institutions, and not just recording exceptional cases.
All of this has had a correlation in teaching. Guides, best practices and teaching innovations have been disseminated to teach economic history with a gender perspective, so that the classroom stops reproducing inherited biases and starts incorporating sources, debates and authors that were previously conspicuous by their absence.
From the 19th to the beginning of the 20th: precursors and debates that changed the tone
The 19th century was decisive for women to give their own voice to their economic and social experience. Several authors used history as a critical tool In the face of their exclusion, they insisted that they had been present and active. Among the pioneers, Margaret Fuller published a key text in 1845 that questioned domestic relegation and criticized historical readings that subordinated women; it was not a “scientific” treatise in the usual sense, but it was a huge step in the construction of a feminist perspective.
Also of great impact was the chronicle of the American suffrage movement, collected in several volumes edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Ida Husted Harper. Those compilations documented campaigns, speeches, and organizationsand they championed women as political and social agents, filling gaps that the dominant historiography had left empty.
Nineteenth-century socialism fueled the debates on feminism and suffrage. Friedrich Engels linked the women's question to the class struggleIn an influential, though partial, reading regarding the autonomy of feminist demands, Beatrice Webb, a leading figure in Fabianism and co-founder of the LSE, denounced wage discrimination and job insecurity, and reflected on how consumers and housewives could influence the everyday economic organization.
Already in the transition to the 20th century, the militant impulse and the desire to disseminate knowledge intersected with a desire to systematize evidence. The result was a series of works that focused on labor, industry, education, property, and institutions.opening a path along which economic studies with a gender perspective would later circulate.
Work, industrialization and development: from the workshop to wages and from subsistence to the market
Alice Clark, in her work on women's work in the 17th century, argued that industrialization separated home and employment, deteriorating the economic position of women and pushing them into unpaid work. Before, life and production coexisted; with the factory, many were left out of “visible production,” redefining their status within the family and the market.
Ivy Pinchbeck nuanced that picture by studying the British Industrial Revolution: It showed that there were also new opportunities, especially in textilesAnd that regulation and debates on labor rights opened, albeit with limitations, avenues for improvement. Her approach inaugurated a more nuanced historiography on working conditions, wages, and the adaptation of women workers to changes in production.
Ester Boserup fundamentally changed the way development was analyzed in non-industrialized countries. She demonstrated that, in many agrarian economies, Women had been crucial in the productionThe transition to commercial crops and technological modernization tended to marginalize them, raising the value (and wages) of male labor and displacing them to lower-paid or invisible tasks, with greater economic dependence.
Claudia Goldin reframed the narrative of female labor force participation with long-term evidence for the United States. Her famous "U-curve" described a non-linear evolution in female employmentHer work on education and social norms showed how access to secondary and university education transformed careers, families, and expectations. She also conceptualized the “motherhood penalty” as a key component of wage inequality.
Historian Jane Humphries, for her part, questioned averages that obscure concrete experiences and criticized the ease of reading about British industrialization with additions that minimize the work of women and children. Their proposal: to reconsider narratives, sources, and categoriesand to tell the story of industrialization also from the perspective of those who experienced it in the worst conditions.
Company history, finances and markets: from the office to shareholder action
From a business history perspective, the study analyzed how gender and organization were shaped simultaneously. Angel Kwolek-Folland studied corporate offices between 1870 and 1930 and showed How gender norms and imaginaries shaped hierarchies, careers, and corporate culture in banking and insurance, when the “white collar” began to be feminized.
In the late nineties, academic journals opened special issues on women and business, amplifying a previously scattered debate. Compositions of broad thematic and chronological scope were published that brought together research on property, law, trade, agriculture, industrial labor and management, from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century.
In historical finance, a pioneering collective volume focused on shareholders, savers, and investors, and in its relation to accounting and administration From the 18th century to the mid-20th century, names, investment networks, risk appetite, and portfolio performance entered into dialogue with questions that remain relevant today.
The most recent reviews have been unequivocal: The dominant narrative in the business continues to leave women on the marginsExcept when a study truly adopts an inclusive approach. Hence the insistence on moving beyond “women” as a category to rethinking institutions, corporate culture, concepts, and questions. The assessment of the last quarter-century shows remarkable progress and, at the same time, room for more radical change.
Economists and pioneers: popularizers, thinkers and practitioners
In the early days of political economy, Jane Marcet published "Conversations on Political Economy," a book that brought complex concepts closer to a broad audience and encouraged other women to enter the economic debate. Harriet Martineau took that vocation for popularization to its highest expression with his “Illustrations of Political Economy”, while defending civil rights and questioning unequal institutions.
Rosa Luxemburg, a figure of critical Marxism, He offered his own interpretation of accumulation, crisis, and the role of moneyHe debated democracy and revolution with leaders of his time. His work, written even while he was in prison, remains relevant for discussing tensions between the market, institutions, and social conflict.
In the United States, Edith Abbott stood out as a suffragist, academic, and public servant. She was a pioneer in applied statistics and social analysisShe participated in the development of Social Security and held leadership positions that were difficult for women of her generation to access, at the intersection of research, public policy and social reform.
Joan Robinson, one of the most powerful voices of the 20th century, He revolutionized microeconomics with imperfect competition and contributed to macro debates on growth and distribution. Although he never received the Nobel Prize, his legacy shaped entire research and teaching agendas at Cambridge and beyond.
The Hispanist and economist Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson linked her academic life to Spain, He studied the School of Salamanca and the scholastic traditionand left a lasting mark on the history of economic thought, with international recognition and a long university career.
Mary Paley Marshall also deserves mention, as she was among the first Cambridge students who, despite taking the exams, She was unable to graduate because she was a woman.Professor, co-author of a classic textbook with Alfred Marshall and a key figure in the institutionalization of economics in Bristol, she embodies perseverance in the face of formal barriers.
If we look at the financial and business field, several biographies break the stereotype of passivity. Abigail Adams managed investments in early government debt Against the opinions of those close to her, she multiplied her wealth; Victoria Woodhull co-founded with her sister the first female stock brokerage on Wall Street; and Hetty Green, a legendary investor, made her fortune with discipline and patience, buying value at lows and selling in the euphoria.
Deirdre McCloskey, with her work on rhetoric and persuasion in economics, It opened a line that humanizes the discipline.explaining how arguments and values operate in our theories. And Christina Romer, who headed the Council of Economic Advisers during the Great Recession, helped design countercyclical policies in times of crisis.
Nobel Prizes and global leadership: influence and decision-making
Elinor Ostrom was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics for her analysis of the commons and cooperation. He demonstrated that diverse communities can create effective rules for managing resources without depending exclusively on the State or the market, with an institutional and empirical approach of enormous impact.
Esther Duflo, along with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer, It expanded the use of field trials to evaluate anti-poverty policies.transforming the way interventions in education, health, or microfinance are prioritized. His experimental approach redrew the map of development economics.
Claudia Goldin crowned decades of historical and empirical research on women and the labor market, unraveling the causes of the gender pay gap and the maternity penaltyand showing how education and norms have guided life decisions and career paths.
In the institutional sphere, Christine Lagarde has been the first woman to head the IMF and the ECB, setting a standard of leadership and visibility in economic circles. At the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva continues that approach, and at the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala leads a key institution in global trade.
Janet Yellen broke records as Chair of the Federal Reserve and as Secretary of the Treasury, Gita Gopinath paved the way as chief economist of the IMFPinelopi Koujianou (Goldberg) led the economic division of the World Bank. In Spain, Margarita Delgado became the first female deputy governor of the Bank of Spain, contributing to financial supervision and stability.
Contributions from Spain and from academia: monographs, debates and teaching
A landmark monograph coordinated from Spain brought together research on the presence of women in economic thought and professional practice. Elena Gallego Abaroa brought back to life Jane Marcet, Harriet Martineau, Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Harriet Taylor Mill, four nineteenth-century authors linked to the classical tradition who defended progress, education and economic participation.
In that same dossier, Miguel Ángel Galindo analyzed criticisms of neoclassical orthodoxy by several economists, demanding training, fair remuneration and disclosure; and connected early contributions on consumption with debates that would later be popularized by Keynesianism.
José Luis Ramos Gorostiza reviewed Beatrice Webb's diaries and letters and her trip to Stalinist USSR to understand her shift from Fabianism to a favorable view of planning. Estrella Trincado spoke with Rosa Luxemburg about crisis and courage.highlighting the importance of money, risk, and the institutional framework in cycles.
Begoña Pérez Calle traced the genesis and scope of imperfect competition in the early work of Joan Robinson; María Teresa Méndez Picazo followed the transition from domestic accounting to professionalization; and Luis Perdices de Blas examined the place that the enlightened Pablo de Olavide gave to women in education and the labor market.
Other works from the same group studied contemporary business structures in Spain, the presence of women in economic research, the evolution by professional groups in banking (2000-2008) and entrepreneurial capabilities, with proposals for public and business policies oriented towards equity and productivity.
16th-19th Centuries: Business and Finance in a Different Light
An international congress focused on the 16th to 19th centuries opened a meeting space to re-examine female participation in business and finance. The premise was clear: their role had been minimized for too long., despite his activity in commerce, textiles or rural credit, and today we have documentary evidence that corrects it.
The first thematic axis explored written culture and education, both theoretical and practical. What did they read and where did they learn? Manuals, schools, factories, and ways of accessing knowledge were analyzed., dismantling the idea that they only approached moral or religious texts.
The second axis dealt with trades and jobs, including those shared with men, with their alliances and frictions. It was important to measure participation, survival strategies, and regulationand to question the mold of the “bourgeois model” as the sole pattern of female experience.
The third focus was on the management of assets and the conflicts involved in maintaining them: debts, lawsuits, and family agreements. Although legal representation used to fall to menStudies reveal a significant presence of women in domestic and property management and decision-making.
The fourth axis addressed entrepreneurship and business management. Many initiatives arose from necessity and the search for income. in changing contexts. There emerge independent women who took advantage of legal loopholes and market opportunities, sometimes skirting the rules, to sustain their own and family businesses.
The summaries of that meeting highlight two things: that the sources do record their presence and that the supposed total legal dependence is an oversimplification. As the questions become more refined, the economic history of the Modern and Contemporary Ages incorporates real practices and decisions made by women with agency and calculation.
In parallel, university teaching and dissemination have been incorporating this perspective more systematically, with chapters, guides and classroom experiences. The aim is for the next generation to study economic history without the usual gaps. and use conceptual frameworks that include care, unpaid work, and the interaction between social norms and institutions, as shown in studies on advances in Byzantine medicine.
The focus has also broadened in the publishing and specialized journal sectors: monographs, literature reviews, and blind peer reviews They have helped to bring coherence to a field that, thirty years ago, seemed scattered. Today, the challenge is not to prove that “there are cases,” but to rewrite the architecture of the narrative.
Challenges remain, from measuring unpaid work to identifying biases in historical series, as well as reviewing indicators that presume neutrality. But the direction things are heading is promising.More data, better questions, and narratives that connect the micro with the macro, and the biographical with the institutional.
If we put everything together, economic history with a gender focus has gone from asking "where were the women" to explaining "how the economy worked with them in it," its barriers and its strategies. From 19th-century activists to contemporary Nobel laureates, from the offices of early capitalism to monetary policy councilsThe map has become filled with protagonists, concepts, and evidence. And although not everything has been said, no one can claim that this is merely a footnote: it is an essential part of the central argument about how our societies grow, change, and organize themselves.
