Barbara E. Hopkins

Western cosmetics in the gendered development of consumer culture in China

Abstract This paper examines the changes in Chinas gender regime during the reform period, especially during Chinas accession to the WTO. The analysis provides a framework to relate these changes to the consumption behavior of women, especially the increased consumption of cosmetics, to interpret the impact of accession on the gender regime in China. Institutionalist theories that model consumption decisions as a personal display of group identity are extended to the special case of gender identity. According to this framework, the desire to display identity, such as social status or lifestyles, shapes the decision to consume commodities that also display gender such as cosmetics. Thus, the new gender regime is an unintended consequence of a complex pursuit of identity. When consumption is understood as a performance of identity, we can see how the expansion of aggressive marketing tactics affects consumption by influencing the associations of goods with social status.

A Feminist Comparative Economic Systems

Abstract This study proposes that feminist research be integrated into the field of comparative economic systems (CES) and that CES return to its traditional institutionalist methodologies to facilitate more complete analyses of economic systems and feminist alternatives to these systems and institutions. The study describes the evolution of CES, drawing attention to an increasing reliance on econometric modeling that reflects a shift in focus away from systems. An inventory of research on women and gender that has appeared in CES journals and textbooks finds little on topics other than formal labor markets in transition economies. The study contrasts this literature on women and gender in transition economies to research on this topic by women from transition economies, a literature that CES journal authors do not reference. It concludes by proposing a feminist economics approach that focuses on gender-differentiated impacts of economic systems, analyses of households, and equity as a measure of progress.

The Institutional Barriers to Heterodox Pluralism

This paper applies the feminist concept of epistemological communities to the project of promoting pluralism in the economics discipline. It argues that the review process should require that reviewers are part of the same epistemological community. It argues that a political conception of pluralism based on tolerance is more appropriate than methodological pluralism. JEL classification: A11, B40, B50

Argument and Community in the Markets Debate

In this essay, I use personal experience in the markets debate to illustrate how relationships of power are used to silence opposing arguments and dominate debate. I argue that presentation of womens experience and building on previous research by feminists must be accepted as valid arguments in a feminist community. Finally, I urge feminists to work together and reject these power plays.

Gender Dimensions of the U.S. Consumer Borrowing Expansion

The article calls attention to gender as a dimension of the expansion of U. S. consumer borrowing. The first section emphasizes that gender is not a dummy variable, but an evolution of habits of thought. The second section discusses how changing gender relations are connected to gendered product differentiation and market expansion. The final section connects gendered market expansion and changing gender habits of thought to the expansion of consumer borrowing. We argue that, in addition to the acknowledged role of credit, gender relations also mask the structural financial fragility of households.

Gender Inequality in Postcapitalism: Theorizing Institutions for a Democratic Socialism

In this paper, I explore the implications for gender equality of building democratic institutions in workplaces and democratic planning in the economy. I review proposals for postcapitalism and consider whether those institutional innovations are likely to address three aspects of gender equality: discrimination and harassment at work, adequate provision for care work, and social control over consumer decisions. I propose three areas for developing competency at democratic decision making that could improve gender equity. JEL Classification: P4, B54

Reasserting Institutionalist Insights on the Good Society: 30 Years After Petr’s Call for a Mixed Economy

Abstract: In this research note, I revisit the issues raised by Jerry Petr (1987) in “The Nature and Necessity of the Mixed Economy.” The institutionalist mixed economy is still a sound model for the good society. However, Western industrialized countries have been losing ground on the goals of the mixed economy. The struggle to defend pragmatism over ideological attachment to neoliberalism, has evolved into a distributional struggle that cannot be resolved without institutional change.

Does the Field of Comparative Economic Systems (CES) Care about the Good Society? A Feminist Angle on the Need for Institutional Analysis in CES

Philosophers have historically asked: “What is the good society?” Correspondingly, economists have asked: “What makes for a good economic system?” (Brada 2009, 5). In the past quarter century, it has become increasingly clear within the social sciences that both of these questions and their answers depend greatly on the gender of those involved. Who considers whether a society/economy is good, and by what measures of “goodness”—men or women, and which men, which women?