Advanced Search

Women's Agency In Classical Economic Thought: Adam Smith, Harriet Taylor Mill, And J. S. Mill

Contents:

Author Info

  • Ronald Bodkin
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    In this paper, the issue of women's agency (defined as the capacity of a female economic agent for rational decision-making) is examined in classical economic thought, with Adam Smith and the Mills taken as case studies. It is concluded that Smith had relatively little confidence in women's independent judgment and hence in their capacity for reasoned decisions on economic matters. By contrast, the Mills, almost alone among classical economists, did trust women to make decisions in their long-run interest. With the arrival of academic feminism in economics, the time is ripe for a reappraisal of such implicit assumptions, and it is concluded that current-day economists would do better to follow the Mills, rather than Adam Smith, on this matter.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/135457099338148
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Feminist Economics.

    Volume (Year): 5 (1999)
    Issue (Month): 1 ()
    Pages: 45-60
    Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
    Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:5:y:1999:i:1:p:45-60

    Contact details of provider:
    Web page: http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?target=journal&id=101482

    Order Information:
    Web: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/subscription.asp

    For corrections or technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Michael McNulty).

    Related research

    Keywords: Classical Thought; Women's Agency; Feminism;

    References

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
    1. Nathan Rosenberg, 1960. "Some Institutional Aspects of the Wealth of Nations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68, pages 557.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    Cited by:
    1. Robert W. Dimand & Evelyn L. Forget & Chris Nyland, 2004. "Retrospectives: Gender in Classical Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 229-240, Winter.
    2. Janet A. Seiz & Michele A. Pujol, 2000. "Harriet Taylor Mill," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 476-479, May.

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:5:y:1999:i:1:p:45-60

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Michael McNulty).

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.