Waring (2003), "Counting for Something!"

Waring (2003) critiques the UNSNA's system of accounting for unpaid labor in the home and community. The majority of this labor is performed by women. When household labor is not accounted for in official numbers, then the women performing that labor also lose access to other economic programs. Waring (2003) identifies two ongoing issues in economic accounting systems:

1. Systems do not ask people to set their own indicators of well-being.

The most dominant measurement system uses economic growth as an indicator for people's well-being. Waring (2003) argues that economists should speak with people and ask them to rate their own well-being.

2. Systems should present data in non-monetary terms.

Waring (2003) argues that putting a monetary value to all work falsely aligns work in the home with market exchange. If unpaid labor were accounted by hours or workload instead, Waring (2003) points out, issues of gender inequality in terms of labor load could be better addressed through things like childcare services.

Strassmann (1993), "The Rhetoric of Disciplinary Authority in Economics"

1. Economics is a discipline marked as explanatory rather than a domain to be explained.

Strassmann (1993) critiques economics for its disciplinary structure. Most disciplines define themselves by the domain they wish to examine, economics is instead defined by its explanation of things work.

2. Economics is based on central stories about the value of market exchange.

Economics privileges the market exchange. Since women have historically be excluded from this exchange, economics has therefore proceeded without fully accounting for women's existence in economies. To remedy this fact, stories have emerged that justify and dismiss women's oppressed position in capitalist economies.

3. Since market exchange is so central to economics as a theory and discipline, changes in economic structure are very difficult.

Economics frames itself as an approach that is built around certain core assumptions. Some problems in economics are related to things like self-interested individualism, which are very close to the core of economics.

Mies (1993), "The Subsistence Perspective"

Mies (1993) critiques the neo-liberal capitalist focus on commodity and suggests replacing this perspective with what she calls "the subsistence perspective." She argues that economies should be based on a bottom-up approach.

1. Housework is not understood as labor.

Mies (1993) interrogates capitalism's limited understanding of labor. In particular, she is concerned with housework and other forms of unpaid labor. Mies (1993) argues that capitalism cannot afford to pay for household labors, because these non-commodified forms would collapse a system based on commodity. Housework does not fit into the accumulation model of capitalism.

2. Economic equality can only occur when commodity models are discarded.

Mies (1993) argues that we should reverse the model that uses commodities to structure economics from the top down. Instead, she proposes a subsistence perspective that work from the bottom up with human need as its centerpiece. In the subsistence perspective, the goal of all paid labor must be to support life directly.

Hartsock. (1983), "The Feminist Standpoint"

1. Knowledge is socially situated.

Hartsock (1983) rejects the belief that knowledge is fixed. She argues that all attempts at knowledge are based on one's social position. Issues of identity including gender, race, sexuality, and class impact and delineate what we know, how we know it, and whether or not we are able to know it at all.

2. Marginalized groups have special access to certain questions and truths than non-marginalized groups. This is a result of their unique social position.

Socially marginalized positions can be epistemically superior. This allows those in oppressed positions to see beyond knowledges constructed by the oppressor.

3. Research about power relations should begin with the lives of the marginalized.

This epistemic superiority can lead research in directions that would otherwise be overlooked. This is particularly true in issues of public policy, since those in oppressed positions are more likely to see problems in need of solutions.

Hartmann (1979), "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism"

Hartmann (1979) argues Marxism has subsumed feminism in previous attempts at Marxist feminist theory. Marxism offers a background of economic theory, but this is not sufficient for theorizing women's position in both patriarchy and capitalism.

1. Economics is only one aspect of patriarchal domination.

Hartmann (1979) notes that men have dominated women economically, and that economics have functioned to subjugate women. However, she notes that Marxist theory simply argues that women are kept in the labor force. Feminist theory must also examine the ways other forms of women's labor are exploited by men. She specifically notes work in the home as one of these axes.

2. Patriarchy can be defined through capitalism, but is not synonymous with capitalism.

Hartmann (1979) defines patriarchy as social relations between men that work to oppress women. These relations have a material base. Though these relations are hierarchical, they work to empower men to dominate women as individuals and in groups.