Nineteenth-Century French Liberal Economists and Women's Work: The Dark Side of Industrialization

IF 1.2 2区 历史学 Q3 ECONOMICS
Nathalie Sigot
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Abstract

This article reconstructs the debates on the woman question in which nineteenth-century French liberal economists participated: it aims at showing that their analysis contradicted their conviction that, in Bastiat's words, “men's interests, when left to themselves, tend to . . . work together for progress and the general good.” Indeed, French liberals are usually labeled optimistic: they denounced the pessimistic and fatalist character of the “English school of economics” based on Ricardo's rent theory and Malthus's law of population. On the contrary, they attempted to prove that economic development improved the situation of all, especially that of workers. However, their optimism did not extend to their analysis of the situation of women: most of them recognized that women were not benefiting from the general improvement in terms of wages, labor conditions, and social mobility. The article then shows that the reasons they gave to explain the bad situation of women present many challenges, linked respectively to the issue of state intervention and wage theory. Moreover, it is unlikely that the only solution they proposed for improving it, that is, the promotion of female education, could have worked.
十九世纪法国自由主义经济学家与妇女的工作:工业化的阴暗面
本文重构了十九世纪法国自由主义经济学家参与的关于妇女问题的辩论:旨在说明他们的分析与他们的信念相矛盾,即用巴斯蒂亚的话说,"人的利益,如果由他们自己决定,往往会......共同促进进步和普遍利益"。事实上,法国自由主义者通常被贴上乐观主义的标签:他们谴责以李嘉图的地租理论和马尔萨斯的人口定律为基础的 "英国经济学派 "的悲观主义和宿命论特征。相反,他们试图证明经济发展改善了所有人的境况,尤其是工人的境况。然而,他们的乐观并没有延伸到对妇女状况的分析中:他们中的大多数人都认识到,妇女并没有从工资、劳动条件和社会流动性的普遍改善中受益。文章随后指出,他们解释妇女境况不佳的理由提出了许多挑战,这些挑战分别与国家干预和工资理论有关。此外,他们提出的改善妇女状况的唯一解决方案,即促进女性教育,也不太可能奏效。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.20
自引率
14.30%
发文量
67
期刊介绍: Focusing on the history of economic thought and analysis, History of Political Economy has made significant contributions to the field and remains its foremost means of communication. In addition to book reviews, each issue contains original research on the development of economic thought, the historical background behind major figures in the history of economics, the interpretation of economic theories, and the methodologies available to historians of economic theory. All subscribers to History of Political Economy receive a hardbound annual supplement as part of their subscription.
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