A good start
would be A Biographical Dictionary of
Women Economists, by Robert Dimand, Mary Ann Dimand and Evelyn Forget
(eds.) (2000) Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. The introduction provides a short history of women
in economics. See also Madden, K., Seiz, J. and M. Pujol (2004) Bibliography of Female Economic Thought
1770-1940, London and New York: Routledge.



Early women economists with tenure would be Edith Abbott (2nd women
in with PhD in economics, position at department Social Economy, University of
Chicago), Hazel Kyrk and Margaret Reid, both also at the University of Chicago.
When you count in women with an appointment in an economics department, Mary
Paley Marshall could qualify, as she taught in 1878 at the University of
Bristol (though without PhD) (see Dimand, Dimand & Forget, 2000). 

 

At LSE there
was a group of economic historians who did great work, but would they be
considered economists? See Berg, Maxine (1992)
“The First Women Economic Historians”, The
Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 308-329. 



The question of what would be considered economics/an economist is crucial
here. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote "Women & economics"
(1899) but did not have a position at an university. Does that make her not-an-economist?
Because women obtained access to higher education only after 1870, and it took
until the early 20th century before they could obtain a PhD in economics and even
longer before they could obtain an academic position in an economics department
(see great overview of women’s articles in economic journals in a working paper
by Peter Groenewegen & Susan King, 1994). The first woman with tenure
position in an economics department will probably be even later. Then you may indeed
end up with Joan Robinson as one of the first. 

 

Women’s economic
writings have often been on topics such as ‘Economics of the Domestic Sector’
and ‘Economics of Emancipation’ which were not part of  or covered by JEL or its forerunners. See Madden,
Kirsten (2002) Female Contributions to Economics Thought, 1900-1940, History of Political Economy, 34, 1, 1 –
30.

 

Some good additional
sources are 

Robert Dimand and Chris Nyland (2003) The
Status of Women in Classical Economics Thought, Edward Elgar.
Dimand, Mary
Ann, Dimand, Robert, and Evelyn L. Forget (eds) (1995) Women of  Value.
Feminist Essays on the History of Women in Economics, Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar. 

 

There is quite some work by women economic writers, who did not have an
academic education or an academic career. An introduction on the topic and a
selection of these texts can be found in 


Barker, D.K. & Kuiper, E. (2010) Feminist
Economics, Routledge Major Works Series, London, New York: Routledge.
Volume 1 contains texts by women economic writers from 1800-1960. 

 

Edith Kuiper

Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 18:45:25 +0200
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHOE] the first women economist: help
To: [log in to unmask]


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.
ThanksLuigino