Am glad to attest that Margaret Reid's book, Housing and Income, is close to
the best study of the subject I have read. She skillfully avoids the trap of
"Regression Fallacy" by using area units as her instrumental variable. Then
she goes further and avoids the attitude, prevailing at Chicago at the time,
to use such statistical sophistication solely to trash progressive income
taxation, in a tendentious way. She lets the reader draw her or his own
conclusions.

I never knew her, or why she left Chicago, but it was a great loss.

Mason Gaffney

-----Original Message-----
From: Societies for the History of Economics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Sumitra Shah
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 7:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] the first women economist: help

This may be a later period than the information you need, but this article
is about to the life and achievements of Margaret G. Reid, who received her
Ph. D. in economics from Chicago in 1931. Reid became a full professor there
after teaching elsewhere. She had a most interesting career and influenced
people like Gary Becker, Franco Modigliani et al.

I had tried to send a link, but it's access is restricted to
members/subscribers. Here is the information: it was published in


Feminist Economics 2(3), 1996, 17-36. Perhaps I can send it as an attachment
off-list.



ABSTRACT

Feminist critics of mainstream economics, and of the neoclassical paradigm

in particular, have focused primarily on exposing and questioning the

gender biases and androcentric claims to neutrality, objectivity and
rationality

of the most male-dominated discipline among the social sciences. The

scientific method and mathematical sophistry so cherished in the discipline

have also come under severe attack from several quarters. However, despite

the intellectual ferment and some practical gains for women that these

criticisms have engendered, even today the substantial contributions several

women scholars have made to the field of economics are not well known or

fully acknowledged. This paper traces and highlights Margaret Reid's

contributions to the development of some core theories in economics. While

several of her male colleagues whose work she had inspired or contributed

to have been awarded the Nobel Prize, the discipline of economics still owes

a huge debt to Reid and to several other women economists.




Sumitra Shah

________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
luigino bruni [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 12:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHOE] the first women economist: help


I'm writing a paper with a colleague (Smerilli) on the women contribution to
economics (and more in general on the feminine dimension in economics), but
it is very difficult to find a sort of history of the early days, because
most of the references I found begin the history with Johan Robinson, Anna
Schwartz,  plus some references to Mill's and Marshall's wives. In
particular I'm interested in knowing who was the first academic woman with a
tenure/position in universities in England or US or other countries.
Thanks
Luigino