Separate Spheres in Political Economy and Economics—Gender Equality and Classical Liberalism

A research colloquium with Professor Giandomenica Becchio will be held on May 16, at 2:30 pm, in room 2.07. Becchio will be discussing her new book The Doctrine of the Separate Spheres in Political Economy and Economics (Gender Equality and Classical Liberalism).

The concept of separate spheres emerged in philosophy and has consistently been incorporated by various disciplines. This book stands as the first comprehensive exploration of how this doctrine was embraced, adapted, and contested by economists engaged in gender issues and marriage theory. Spanning the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, it illuminates the evolution of the drive for gender equality—rooted primarily in the tradition of classical liberalism—across the landscape of economic ideas and theories.

Giandomenica Becchio is associate professor at the Department of Economics, Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics (ESOMAS), University of Torino, Italy. Her research encompasses the history of economic thought, with a specific emphasis on gender issues, as well as the methodology of economics and the classical liberal tradition within political economy.