Anna Doyle Wheeler: Gender Equality and the Need for a Cooperative Economic System

In the early nineteenth century, the utilitarian feminist Anna Doyle Wheeler generated still relevant analysis of the political economy of gender. The feminist literature credits Wheeler and her coauthor William Thompson as the first to appreciate that reproductive labor, however exploited, plays a central role in capitalism. Wheeler convincingly argues why piecemeal reform within capitalism cannot generate equality. The answer: a cooperative economy. This article formalizes two central propositions attributed to Anna Doyle Wheeler: (i) high levels of social welfare require gender equality; and (ii) gender equality requires a cooperative economic system. Conditional on interdependence and perceptions of happiness, there is a fundamental coherence underlying the first proposition. This study explicates the reasoning for the second proposition using Wheeler’s insights into social psychology and her understanding of cooperative institutions. Identifying and constructing decentralized, self-governing, and commonly owned institutions that embody Wheeler’s broad principles remains a challenge.HIGHLIGHTS Feminist philosopher Anna Doyle Wheeler argued gender equality requires cooperation.Meaningful gender equality demands a social psychology of enlarged self-interest.Cooperative institutions of common property must be decentralized and self-governed.