Suny Saccomanno PART 2

Why did you decide to complete your dissertation on feminist economics?

It all started with knowing that female representation in economics is very poor. I’ve felt overwhelmed at times by the lack of other women in my course and that really made me feel as though I wasn’t good enough or that I wasn’t suited to the course. But I didn’t think that the issue was simply a matter of proportions in terms of more men choosing to study economics or male founders being more likely to receive investments than female founders. I wanted to delve deeper and this led me to come across feminist economics.

In doing so, I found that there are many entrenched gender biases within the discipline of economics. In recruitment many of the characteristics associated with masculinity are privileged, for example women are seen as less objective and more emotional, and this contributes to economics being a heavily male-dominated subject.

Tell us a bit more about the content of your dissertation

I decided to go down a slightly different route; I looked outside the teaching of economics through theories and models and statistical analysis because this is not where my passion lies. Instead, I sought to challenge the implicit assumptions and some of the preconceptions which are embedded within economics. I realised that there is such a lack of gender-aware policy and research being carried out and that lots of the ‘female empowerment’ goals that are found within policies are overly-simplified and can’t be tangibly measured. I actually found myself becoming quite overwhelmed with the amount of criticisms that traditional economics has.

What I did was I selected an EU economic policy focused on trade and built an instrument of measurement to monitor the gendered impacts of this development policy. I did a contextual analysis looking at two different countries and evaluating the impacts that the policy would have. This is where my study of feminist economics came in with lots of different concepts being employed, the main one was gender mainstreaming.

Tell us more about gender mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is the idea that you need to think about incorporating the context of gender even in policies which are not specifically designed to promote gender equality. This is why I picked a policy about trade which, at first glance, doesn’t seem to have any impact on gender outcomes.

I told Suny that I had never heard of feminist economics, and she told me;

This really proves my point about why it is so important to look at concepts like gender mainstreaming! You’ve done economics to A Level and haven’t heard of feminist economics, and I also had no idea that it existed until third year at university. When picking my modules, I had no option to look at feminist economics which is such a shame because this field of research is so inspiring for people passionate about gender equality and women’s empowerment. Most of the economists you learn about at university are male, all of the major taught theories come from men. But, there are so many female economists out there who are doing incredible work, particularly at the intersection of economics with other disciplines.

What advice would you give to young people who feel unsure over whether or not they want to go into economics?

I think a lot of people, especially young women, can be deterred from choosing economics because they don’t feel good enough at maths or might not enjoy doing maths. But, economics is so much more than just numbers and analysis. I think it is key to find the area of economics that you are passionate about so you can tailor your journey, and for me that is feminist economics. At university you study the compulsory modules in basic micro and macroeconomics but then you have optional modules as well. This allows you to choose what you want to study and specialise in.

What is your biggest piece of advice for people reading this interview?

Going through challenges is constant and I feel like it is all about overcoming any limiting beliefs that you have. I’ve mentioned before that I would go into my economics lectures and feel as though I wasn’t good enough because I was surrounded by all of these people that I thought were cleverer than me. As soon as you get a thought like that, you need to erase and move past it. Think about all of the things that you have achieved and always remember that you are good enough and that you’ve earned your place. And the second thing is comparison. It is easier said than done because we all tend to compare ourselves when looking at someone successful. But try to reframe the comparison into learning from and being inspired by the actions of others.

Looking back at myself 10 years ago, I was a 13 year old girl who came to the UK without speaking any English thinking to myself “how am I going to make it here?”. I would walk into a classroom and not understand a single word that was being said! So, I worked very hard and had many setbacks and had to face lots of stereotypes including people dismissing me as being unintelligent because I was still learning the language. But I think you need to use these experiences to make yourself stronger and to realise that you are more than capable of getting yourself to where you want to be.

A Deep-dive into… Joan Robinson

Joan Robinson is considered to be one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, and yet very few students of economics know her name. She studied at Girton College Cambridge and would spend much of the rest of her career slowly climbing up the academic ladder at the University.

One of her notable ideas is the development of the idea of imperfect competition. Looking between the extremes of perfect competition and monopoly, she argued that the majority of markets involve firms having some degree of market power and that there is often a great deal of interdependence between firms. She was a fierce critic of the neoclassical models involving markets that function smoothly under only the influence of market forces.

Robinson also played a very significant role in the ‘Cambridge School’ of economics under John Maynard Keynes. In fact, Robinson wrote several books and guides about Keynesian ideas and, later on in her life, she began introducing aspects of Marxist economics into her work.

But perhaps the most notable of her ideas was taking a new approach to growth theory in her book ‘The Accumulation of Capital’;

Imagine an orchard where the trees are representative of businesses (stick with this!), and the fruits they bear symbolise goods and services. In traditional economic models, the focus is on how well each tree produces its fruit, assuming that if every tree does its job efficiently, the orchard thrives.

Joan Robinson's growth theory, however, introduces a new perspective. She argues that it's not just about the individual trees; it's also about how many people want to buy those fruits. In her view, if there aren't enough people interested in buying, even the most productive trees won't flourish because there's no demand for their produce.

So, she suggests that to ensure the orchard thrives, it's not enough to focus only on making each tree more productive. We also need to make sure there are enough people eager to buy the fruits. This means stimulating demand by various means, like ensuring people have enough income to spend or implementing policies that encourage investment, similar to Keynes’ focus on the need for government intervention.

In essence, Robinson's theory is like saying, "It's not just about how well the trees produce; it's also about how many hungry customers are out there eager to buy the fruit." By understanding and acting on both aspects—supply and demand—we can cultivate a flourishing orchard, or in economic terms, a thriving economy.

Her work on this aspect of economics provided a rigorous foundation for the development of endogenous growth theory (the idea that internal factors - capital, labour, and innovation - are more important in driving economic growth than external ones)

You can learn more about Joan, if you are interested, by taking a look at this summary of the Cambridge School: https://www.hetwebsite.net/het/schools/cambridge.htm