The citation impact of Feminist Economics

Feminist economics is a transformative project. Yet disciplinary transformation generates resistance. Feminist economics can be deliberately excluded, as in “that’s not economics,” or “that publication won’t count towards tenure,” or “this is really just sociology.” Feminist economics can be co-opted, with an uncritical application of rational choice theory, as in post- or sub-Becker studies. Feminist economics can be ignored. And feminist economics can be listened to: when experts in the United Nations consult feminist economists in the development of the United Nations Human Development Report; when feminist economists publish in widely-read journals; when a student reads a Feminist Economics article, says “aha!”, and then cites the piece in her first publication a few years later. All of these are ways feminist economics can, and has, influenced the profession. After 10 years of discourse, it is possible to take stock and ask: who is listening? This paper analyzes the impact of feminist economics through a consideration of citations of the journal Feminist Economics, describing its impact on mainstream economics, heterodox economics and other disciplines. While the overall project of feminist economics is encompasses much more than just one journal, studying the citations for Feminist Economics is at least a first step towards an assessment of the influence of the entire corpus of scholarship.