Nancy Folbre (19 July 1952) is an American feminist economist who focuses on economics and the family (or family economics), non-market work, and the economics of care work. She is professor of economics emerita at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Folbre served as president of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) from 2002 to 2003. She has been an associate editor of the journal Feminist Economics since 1995, and is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. She delivered the inaugural Ailsa McKay Lecture in 2016.
Early life and education
Folbre received a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971, an M.A. in Latin American studies from UT Austin in 1973, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1979.
Focus Folbre focuses on the economics of care, which she defines as, "work that involves connecting to other people, trying to help people meet their needs, things like the work of caring for children, caring for the elderly, caring for sick people or teaching is a form of caring labor," and she adds that caring labor can be paid or unpaid. Folbre argues that mainstream economists do not pay enough attention to the economics of care. This is detrimental to women because the exclusion of non-market and care work from mainstream economic analysis can marginalize women and children and undervalue their contributions to the home and the community. Care is a unique form of work because it is "intrinsically motivated," in that not just money motivates people to care. Folbre argues that care work has been historically undervalued because it has been historically provided by women at low or no cost, and goes far to explain why women earn less than men. To this end, Folbre questions why women would even take care jobs and argues that the social construction of femininity links femininity and care. Folbre argues that only by working collectively to ensure a greater supply and quality of care, independent of the market, can we ensure that the responsibility of care is equitably distributed and not disproportionately placed upon women. In her well-known book The Invisible Heart, Folbre explores the market and the individualistic competition that it engenders, and argues that the necessary care of elders and children is not provided in the market, yet is still absolutely necessary for society. Historically women have provided this care, whether as non-market work or low-paying market work. Folbre examines the social and governmental structures that support and provide for care, and their evolution throughout history. She concludes with the answer that we all have a responsibility to care for others, and provides a vision for the future in which care and care work are given greater priority and support. Folbre has also written extensively on the social organization of time, namely the time allotted to care for children and the elderly and how family policies and social institutions limit the choices people can make between paid and unpaid work. Folbre kept the blog 'Care Talk: coordinating research on care provision' from 2008 to 2009. She is a contributor to the New York Times Economix blog, an opportunity she has said she relishes because, "most academics spend a lot of time writing stuff that very few people will ever read."
Professional achievements Folbre was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship by the Yale University Economic Growth center in 1979–1980. From 1995 to 1996 she received the French-American Foundation Fellowship for teaching and research in Paris. In 1999 she was awarded the Olivia Shieffelin Nordberg Award for Excellence in Writing and Editing in the Population Sciences, and in April 2004 she was named the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Fellow at the American Academy of Political and Social Science. In 1989 Folbre was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study Women's Work and Women's Households in Western Massachusetts between 1880 and 1910. She was awarded a five- year fellowship with the MacArthur Foundation in 1998, and the Leontief Prize of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University in 2004.
Professional involvements Folbre sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. She was elected president of the International Association for Feminist Economics in 2002, and has been an associate editor of the journal Feminist Economics since 1995. As of 2004 she was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel, which studied the design of non-market accounts. She has been a board member of the Foundation for Child Development since 2000, a member of the National Advisory Commission of Child Care and Early Education as well as the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund since 2004.
Books
Who Pays for the Kids? Gender and the Structures of Constraint (1994) In this book, Folbre discusses how women's transition from the role of primary providers of care work to market-related production presents women with dilemmas. Even with women entering the paid labor force in growing numbers, they are still expected to perform most of the unpaid domestic labor. Women must choose how to divide their time between personal development and fulfillment and the expectations imposed by social norms. An increasing number of single mothers struggle with little or no support from estranged fathers, and while government subsidies may be available, they often only account for a portion of the support that once took place within families. Folbre analyzes this situation through three major foci. First, she attempts to show that mainstream economics have failed to provide adequate models to explain relations between parents and children in terms of development, conflict and social welfare. She suggests that economists should pay less attention to mere accounting of production and more on social reproduction. Second, Folbre explores how a shift in the investment of time and resources toward children might result in losses for other groups. Understanding and addressing these conflicts between groups might lead to more efficient and satisfying means to providing care of children and the elderly. Finally, she examines what history has to say about the collective struggles over the costs of social reproduction.
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