Question

The discussion of Economic Thought has a long tradition of excluding and marginalizing women and other conceptions of economic activities. Select any Female Economist who was lived between 1,600 AD and 1,900 AD.

a) How would you use a concept from the economist who you selected to solve a problem in your life?

Your answer needs to provide at least three paragraphs.

The first paragraph identifies and explains in your own words the concept or theory of the female economist.

The second paragraph identifies and explains the problem in your life. The problem can be associated to your work, schooling, hobbies, family life, or anything that is relevant to you.

The third paragraph explains how the application of the concept or theory will help you to address the problem.

Answer all the questions in well developed paragraphs. The paragraphs should be at least five or six sentences long, and they should clearly include a topic sentence.

Answer 1

Harriet Martineau:

Martineau is the earliest writer on the list, publishing books on the subject of taxation and political economy in the 1830s. She has previously been described as one of “Adam Smith’s daughters,” who adapted his work for a later audience.

Later, she travelled through the young US and wrote “Society in America,” a sociological account of the country.

Martineau’s works were not minor additions to the subject — according to John Vint at Manchester Metropolitan University, her work on political economy was at one point so popular that she outsold Charles Dickens.

Martineau wrote many books and a multitude of essays from a sociological, holistic, religious, domestic and, perhaps most controversially, feminine perspective. She also translated various works by Auguste Comte, and she earned enough to support herself entirely by her writing, a rare feat for a woman in the Victorian era.

The young Princess Victoria enjoyed reading Martineau's publications. She invited Martineau to her coronation in 1838 — an event which Martineau described in great and amusing detail to her many readers.

Martineau said of her own approach to writing: "when one studies a society, one must focus on all its aspects, including key political, religious, and social institutions". She believed a thorough societal analysis was necessary to understand women's status under men. The novelist Margaret Oliphant said "as a born lecturer and politician [Martineau] was less distinctively affected by her sex than perhaps any other, male or female, of her generation".