Towards a 'Friday' Model of International Trade: A Feminist Deconstruction of Race and Gender Bias in the Robinson Crusoe Trade Allegory

Melanie Samson

Canadian Journal of Economics, 1995, vol. 28, issue 1, 143-58

Abstract: A feminist deconstruction of the Robinson Crusoe trade allegory reveals the race and gender biases inherent in four assumptions underlying neoclassical economics and trade theory: Homo Economicus; freedom of choice; absence of barriers to switching labor and pursuing self-interest; and uniformity of the nation. Examples from the electronics and garment industries illustrate that socially constructed race and gender identities mediate an individual's articulation into the economy. A 'Friday' trade allegory, based on the relationship between Crusoe and Friday in the original novel, which explicitly recognizes the trade implications of racialized and gendered labor, is argued to provide a more relevant trade model.

Date: 1995
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