Institutionnalisme rationnel-mécaniste versus institutionnalisme radical-évolutionnaire : deux façons de dialoguer (ou pas) avec le féminisme au tournant du 21ème siècle

The article distinguishes between two approaches within institutional economics – the rational-mechanistic approach and the radical-evolutionary approach – in order to examine how each addresses gender inequalities and/or engages with various feminist theoretical contributions that emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century. It is argued that the rational-mechanistic school offers not only a macroeconomic perspective of "good" institutions but also a microeconomic one, in which women are viewed as a lever for poverty alleviation strategies through social development institutions. In contrast, the radical-evolutionary approach develops a critical engagement on the connection between feminist and institutionalist epistemologies, particularly in its critique of neoliberalism and its rejection of "false dualisms," such as the division between public and private spheres. This line of inquiry ultimately contributed to the emergence, in the United States, of the field of Feminist Institutionalist Economics.