Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Econo... by Katrine Marçal

And after lunch it’s time to do theĭishes. Prosperity was everything that could be transported, that had a limited supply, and that either directly or indirectly gave pleasure or prevented pain.Įverything that women were expected to dedicate themselves to went unseen.Ĭould be stacked in piles and measured in money. So they also didn’t contribute to prosperity, thought economists in the 1800s. Nature was said to tie her to the private sphere, and thus she was notĪctivities like raising children, cleaning, washing or ironing for her family – these don’t create tangible goods that can be bought, traded or sold. Long been uninterested in what exactly happens at home. ‘economy’ comes from the Greek oikos, which means home, economists have Women have never been allowed to be as selfish as men.Īnd if economics is the science of self-interest, how does woman fit in?īeen allowed to stand for self- interest and woman has stood for the fragile ‘People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute,’ wrote Rebecca West. It has been viewed as something threatening, destructive, dangerous and unnatural. In women, lust and greed has always been criticized more harshly than it has in men. The body, and the body has been identified as the opposite of reason. Her that she cannot be rational because childbirth and menstruation tie her to

The task of caring for others, not of maximizing her own gain.

Allowed to act out of self-interest – as in economics, so in sex.

Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Econo... by Katrine Marçal