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Marilyn Waring

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If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics Paperback – January 1, 1990

by Marilyn Waring (Author)

4.7 15 ratings

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This is a revolutionary and powerfully argued feminist analysis of modern economics, revealing how woman's housework, caring of the young, sick and the old is automatically excluded from value in economic theory. An example of this pervasive and powerful process is the United Nation System of National Accounts which is used for wars and determining balance of payments and loan requirements. The author has also written "Women, Politics and Power" and is a formidable force in the politics of New Zealand, serving three terms in Parliament and helping bring down a Prime Minister. She holds a doctorate in political economy and was a visiting Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harpercollins
Publication date

January 1, 1990
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.25 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0062509403
ISBN-13

978-0062509406
See all details

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harpercollins (January 1, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062509403
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062509406
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.25 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #263,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 15 ratings

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Tres Hermanas

Why don't they?

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2019

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Highly recommend this book to any budding or well entrenched feminist or someone who thinks feminism is no longer necessary. This book will remind you why it is and how things really stand. Think it doesn't matter to 51 percent of the planet? Read this book. Take the time to read this book and you will see why those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. A true irreplaceable classic.

5 people found this helpful

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Lucilene Morandi

A great book

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2019

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It is a seminal work that discusses the need to evaluate the reproductive work of women within families as something that effectively generates economic wealth and that is why it should be included in the national accounting system.

3 people found this helpful

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Jane W. Elioseff

This is a basic book in feminist thought. Needs reprinting.

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 1997

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Marilyn Waring is a former member of parliament in NewZealand. She has an international point of view and a horror of the current pattern of resource management. The book is an important link between feminist and environmental thinking/ theorizing. It should be reprinted.

7 people found this helpful

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ROBIN ni Dana

world-view changing book

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2014

The author, a former member of the New Zealand parliament, points out the ways in which the logic of the economics being taught--and relied on by politicians--are faulty, leaving out much of the work that is done in this world, and valuing natural resources only when they are "exploited" (ie. destroyed). Her well-researched account distinguishes between poverty and "misery": observing that non-monitarized, subsistence economies often support a high degree of well-being and health (starting with a very healthy diet); but monitarized, impoverished economies often force people into what is now been recognized as "misery" (ie. when traditional peoples are forced off their lands and into slums to work in factories). Both are considered "poverty" by traditional economics but reflect a very different lived reality. She points out that even in industrial societies much of the work of perpetuating and maintaining the society is unpaid--typically the work of women. She contends that "If Women Counted" our political and economic decision makers would make better decisions that reflect the totality of what we value and what is valuable for the maintenance, sustenance and enjoyment of our lives. An absolutely indispensable book for anyone hoping we might yet find a way to create a more sane world together.

7 people found this helpful

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elizabeth

Absolutely accurate and critically important economic analysis.

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2013

This book should be required reading, a part of every economics course. Economics, as it's presented today lacks any basis in reality as it leaves out the very foundation of economic life. That foundation is built on women's labor; first her reproductive labor which produces every new laborer (and the first commodity, which is mother's milk, nurtures every new "consumer/laborer"); secondly, women's labor composed of cleaning, cooking, nurturing, which prepares for market and maintains each laborer comprises women's continuing industry enabling laborers to occupy every position in the work force. Without this fundamental labor and commodity there would be no economic activity.
Almost twenty years before this book was written, this economic theory was elucidated (1969-1973) by Betsy Warrior in a booklet titled "Houseworker's Handbook," which included the articles, "Housework: Slavery or a labor of Love" and "The Source of Leisure Time." which succinctly explained these fundamental truths that are ignored by all accounting in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Unfortunately, few of these vital economic perspectives are still in print. This is not only as relevant and important today, but is even more needed to bestow the proper value on this invisible, life-sustaining economic activity.

5 people found this helpful

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Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall

A proposal for a rational economics that fits the real world

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2010

It's a pity to see this book lumbered with the "feminist" label, as the alternative economic analysis that's laid out doesn't merely pertain to the failure of classical economics to recognize women's unpaid work. At least half of the book concerns the need to account for environmental degradation in calculating the total wealth produced by a country - an idea that Redefining Progress borrowed from Marilyn in 1995, when they proposed replacing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) as the official measurement.

As Marilyn outlines in her first chapter, she drew on her experience working for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in writing If Women Counted. She was shocked to learn that in many third world countries, women account for a major portion of the productive economy by providing the essentials of life (growing vegetable, making soap and candles, collecting firewood and water) that people in the first world typically purchase. Yet because no money changes hands, these activities are not formally counted as part of a nation's productive economy. Of course she also writes at length about the unpaid work first world woman do (child care, elder care, housework and food preparation).

To my knowledge she is also the first economist to point out the tragedy of counting the costs of war and environmental degradation as part of the productive economy (environmental degradation adds to the GDP because of the money spent to correct the damage) - because they actually lessen humanity's ability to supply our basic survival needs.

By Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, author of THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE

9 people found this helpful

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MereAlien

An essential book.

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2005

This book is one that I would consider core curriculum for feminists and enviromentalists. It is an economics book about the exclusion of women's work from the GDP and of natural resources from the balance of any country's assets and how this detrimentally affects world economics. It is extensive, well researched, important, thorough, and perceptive. A must read.

3 people found this helpful

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