Feminist economics: methodologies, research problems and theoretical proposals toward gender equality

ABSTRACT In spite of the achievements observed in recent decades both in terms of political rights and the increasing participation of women in the labor market, gender inequalities still persist in various aspects of social life, being the economic perhaps one of the most visible one. We could list phenomena such as the wage gap between men and women who perform identical functions, sex segregation in the labor market, women’s insertion in more precarious jobs and the burden of domestic work as some of the main research objects of the so called feminist economics. Confronting this critical approach with the mainstream economics, this article aims to map some theoretical proposals and methodological tools available to identify gender inequalities. We also point out the need to review some principles and concepts of orthodox economics in the light of the criticism of feminist economics and the perspective of gender equality, considering the productive and reproductive spheres and the relations between them.