The Masculinity of Homo Oeconomicus. Maffeo Pantaleoni and Feminism

Manuela Mosca

HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, 2025, vol. 2025/1, issue 1, 13-36

Abstract: The paper discusses Pantaleoni?s feminism, as explicitly attributed to him by Pareto, against the backdrop of the first wave of feminism in the Western world. Pantaleoni was personally in contact with feminists from the aristocracy and upper-middle class and supported many of their initiatives in favour of women. The article examines Pantaleoni?s scarce writings on women?s behaviour and role in society, as well as his views on the feminist movement. Pantaleoni?s favoured subject of enquiry, as well as the distinguishing feature of pure economics, was homo oeconomicus, a figure whose actual existence he never doubted and to whose popularity he made a crucial contribution. In the 1990s, feminist economics criticised the neoclassical approach, denouncing the androcentric bias in its notion of rationality and thus the masculinity of homo oeconomicus. In response, microeconomists argued that homo oeconomicus is an ungendered, abstract, universal category. By reconstructing the features of economic rationality that Pantaleoni attributed exclusively to men, this article provides a crucial element into the masculine connotation of homo oeconomicus.

JEL-codes: B13 B41 B54 J16 K38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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