art-e-conomy _ reader - marko stamenkovic

created around the following key methodological principles:
1. Household work and care work comprise key elements of any economic system and
they should therefore be included in economic analysis.
2. Human welfare should be the central measure of economic performance.
3. Ethical opinions are a valid part of economic analysis.
The above methodological principles deepen and widen the scope of economic research
rather than advocating a narrow interest approach. The use of feminist economic approach
to development policy in practice means focussing on areas such as:
• Equality and elimination of discrimination based on race, gender, age and socioeconomic
characteristics;
• Exercise of human rights;
• Elimination of inequalities in national and international negotiation; and
• Understanding human actions, especially women’s feminist action, as a significant
part of development process.
In this sense, women’s feminist action can be regarded as female action, aimed at
increasing and widening gender equality and women’s ability to act as subjects in their
own interest and the interest of society. Feminist economy is necessary in order to reveal
the gender basis of policy and international trade, as well as real flows of resources
and economic relations, and to propose an alternative on the levels of economic policy,
structures and processes.
Doctrine of low labour cost as the key to the pattern
of the successful development
The orthodox neo-liberal argument states that it is better for women to be exploited
than excluded from the public sphere. In other words, unfavourable conditions under
which they work are better than no job at all. Such attitudes are detrimental, as they give
implicit legitimacy to exploitation and unacceptable working conditions.
The successful development of the Asian Tigers between 1960s and 1980s attained
through a pattern of export oriented industrialisation is often taken as a confirmation of
the belief that low labour cost is the key to successful development patterns. Owing to
low women’s wages, export-oriented industry was gaining two key advantages:
• Low production costs and
• Higher competitiveness and the influx of foreign finance for the purchase of the
latest technologies.
However, to make it more ironic, these technological improvements then lead to changes
in the demand from female-intensive male-intensive work in some export industries, due
to higher average skill levels of male work. Standard neo-liberal view promises that in
time the negative impact will be reduced, as the expansion of market brings benefits in
terms of wage growth etc.
The example of the Asian Tigers has inspired many developing countries to focus on
export-oriented growth as a successful development pattern based on cheap labour.
However, the miracle achieved by the Asian Tigers in terms of development is oversimplified
and reduced to their ability to rely on cheap labour. What is completely overlooked is the
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