The Rise and Rise of Feminist Macroeconomics: Who's Recognizing?

Macroeconomics is arguably the most male-dominated field within the discipline of economics. Since the mid-1990s, feminist economists have thoroughly and meticulously challenged this field through empirical and theoretical analyses and proposed alternative starting points, frameworks, and models. We evaluate the contributions of five scholars--Nilufer Cagatay, Diane Elson, Caren Grown, Stephanie Seguino, and Elissa Braunstein--who have been influential in the development of feminist macroeconomics as a heterodox project since 1995. Through citation analysis, we examine who is recognizing the macroeconomics-related contributions of these five scholars. We document that the journal articles published by these five are cited primarily by women, in mainstream journals, in disciplines other than economics, and in interdisciplinary journals both in and outside of economics. Our analysis reveals that the impact of the five scholars in heterodox macroeconomics journals is miniscule, and the citations of their works are primarily made by other feminist economists, most of whom are women.