Abstract

Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998, is a professed feminist, thus being a clear exception among the most prominent scholars within this scientific domain. One of his most fertile concepts of gender inequalities' analysis is the "positional objectivity". Each human being's individuality is the result (not always harmonious) of multiple identities associated to gender, status within the family, social class, professional group, nation or community. All of them affect the way how each person perceives his/her interests, well-being, goals and behaviour legitimacy. The perception about the self-interest and the perception which the others have about each one's contribution toward family well-being are key elements for intrafamily allocation. In fact, in some communities (e.f. rural India), women identify their individual well-being with that of the family in such a manner that it prevents them from considering, in a slightest objective way, their own interests. On the other hand, the activities related to the family's living, survival and reproduction tend to be considered as "non productive", which conditions the social perception about the legitimacy of women claiming a share of the family income to themselves. Hence Sen defends that the analysis of cooperative conflicts featured by the family life should go beyond the individual and socially perceived interests, forcing the distinction between women's perceptions of the world and of themselves and the well being per se. This conception moves away from the utilitarian tradition of Economics.

Recommended reading:

Text 1 ; Text 2 .

Biographic Note

Lina Coelho is a Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, as a member of the Research Group on Science, Economy and Society (NECES), and Assistant Professor of Economics at the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra, where she teaches in the Economics and Management undergraduate programmes. The theme of her PhD degree in Economics, at the same University, in 2010, was "Women, Family and Inequality in Portugal" Her main research interests lie in the fields of Family Economy, Economics of Inequality and Feminist Economics.

Organization: Gisele Wolkoff and Júlia Garraio (NHUMEP)

Note: The «Gender Workshop series» is a space for discussion around one or two texts on gender which takes place once a month.