An intellectual journey to theorizing motherhood in heterodox economics

Elaine Agyemang Tontoh

Chapter 22 in The Elgar Companion to Women and Heterodox Economics, 2025, pp 337-351 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter narrates my journey to theorizing motherhood within the human capabilities approach and Feminist Economics. It chronicles my lived experiences as a mother while pursuing graduate studies in economics in the United States and the precariousness of schooling, employment, and income in the presence of existing family policies and programmes, the culmination of which would be my groundbreaking and ongoing scholarship on the Economics of Motherhood or what I generally refer to as the Triple Day Thesis. This thesis emphasizes time as a scarce and unequal economic resource within the context of women who experience motherhood. It also emphasizes the tensions and inequities that arise from the lack of freedom to do reproductive work and waged work in addition to self-reproductive work. The chapter offers a real-life example for emerging women scholars in economics of what is possible for themselves and for the future of heterodox economics research.

Keywords: Capabilities Approach; Feminist Economics; Reproductive Work; Self-Reproductive Work; Triple Day Thesis; Waged Work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035329304
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