Dr Ania Plomien

This course is available on the MRes/PhD in Management (Employment Relations and Human Resources), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy) (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Gender, MSc in Gender (Research), MSc in Gender (Rights and Human Rights), MSc in Gender (Sexuality), MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation, MSc in Gender, Media and Culture, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities and MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (International Employment Relations/CIPD). This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

Students should apply by 10am on Friday 25 September 2026. Offers will be made after 10am on this date and will continue until all places are filled.

Priority is given to students on the MSc Gender, Policy and Inequalities programme, then to Gender Studies department students and then to those who have the course listed in their programme regulations who apply in the first 24-hours (by 10:00am, Friday 25 September 2026), space permitting. Please note the timing of your request within the first 24-hours will not impact chances of being accepted onto the course. 

Students from outside the Gender Studies Department requesting a place on this course are required to provide a brief statement (max. 200 words) about their motivation for taking this course and any prior knowledge of/experience with the subject matter of feminist economics.

Please do not email the Course Convenor with personal expressions of interest as these are not required and do not influence who is offered a place. Contact gender@lse.ac.uk with any queries.

The course is run by the Department of Gender Studies emphasising interdisciplinarity in advancing knowledge. Therefore, one of the key objectives of the course is to bring diverse theories, methodologies, and empirical analyses to the understanding of gender in economic processes and the role of policy in attaining equality and well-being. As economic processes comprise a crucial component of social life, whereby gender relations and gender (in)equality both affect and are affected by them, this course seeks to expose students interested in gender and economic issues to diverse scholarly and policy oriented work of feminist economics. 

An interest in gender and feminist approaches to research is essential and undergraduate level course in economics would be an advantage.

Recent decades have seen the emergence of gender equality as a key policy concern and Feminist Economics as a sub discipline. The purpose of the course is to engage with the theoretical foundations and intellectual contributions of Feminist Economics and  to develop an analytical understandings of gender issues with respect to economic processes and policies operating at macro and micro levels. At the macro level, the course explores the implications of contemporary economic and financial governance from a gender perspective, the gender bias in macroeconomic analyses, and the gendered impact of crises, such as austerity policies and the Covid-19 pandemic. At the micro level, the course analyses the gender dynamics of household and labour market inequalities, engages with the economic foundations and explanations of gender inequality within employment and within the household, focusing on wage and productivity differences and the gender division between ‘productive’ and ‘reproductive’ work. Gender, as economically significant marker of inequality, is understood as articulated with race, class, sexuality, ability, migrant status, etc. Analysis also attends to the way in which individual well-being is shaped by the level of development, transnational trade relations, and other structural conditions and processes. Accordingly, the course seeks to bridge the macro-micro divide by drawing together the gendered critique of long-standing biases in economic thinking and develop an analytical foundations for alternative approaches to policies that aim to contribute towards securing sustainable development and gender equal well-being.

15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Essay (1500 words) in the WT.

• Bargawi, H.,  Cozzi, G., Himmelweit, S. (2017) Economics and Austerity in Europe: Gendered Impacts and Sustainable Alternatives.
• Berik, G., Kongar, E. (2021) The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Economics. 
• Cantillon, S., Mackett, O.,  Stevano, S. (2023) Feminist Political Economy. A Global Perspective
• Ferber, M., Nelson, J.(1993) Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory adn Economics. 
• Ferber, M.,  Nelson, J. (2003) Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man.
• Folbre, N. (2009) Greed, Lust and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas.
• Gutiérrez, M. (2003) Macro-Economics: Making Gender Matter.
• Jacobsen, J. (2020) Advanced Introduction to Feminist Economics.
• Karamessini, M., Rubery, J. (2014) Women and Austerity: The Economic Crisis and the Future for Gender Equality.
• Peterson, J.,  Lewis, M. (1999) The Elgar Companion to Feminist Economics. 
• Perrons, D. (2021) Is Austerity Gendered? 
• Pujol, M. (1992) Feminism and Anti-Feminism in Early Economic Thought.
• Zein-Elabdin, E.O., Charushela, S. (2004) Postcolonialism Meets Economics. 

Essay (100%, 3000 words).