The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism
In our first episode, we begin with one of the thinkers who helped shape the field itself: Heidi Hartmann.
Best known for her groundbreaking article The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism, Hartmann’s work has consistently returned to questions mainstream economics has often treated as secondary, or ignored altogether: questions about care, power, and how economies actually sustain people’s lives.
In this conversation, Hartmann reflects on how those questions first emerged in her own work, from studying women’s labour in economic history to challenging the sidelining of gender in both Marxist and mainstream economic thought. She revisits the origins of The Unhappy Marriage, not as abstract theory but as a response to exclusion, to intellectual spaces in which gender was treated as secondary to class.
But this episode is not only about theory. Hartmann also traces how those ideas moved beyond academia, into policy, advocacy, and institution-building through the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She speaks candidly about what it takes to make research matter: working with advocacy groups, translating findings into usable evidence, and understanding that impact often depends on timing, clarity, and how ideas travel.
Across the conversation, one thread remains constant: feminist economics is not just about adding women into existing models, but about changing the questions those models are built around in the first place.
Disclaimer: IAFFE brings together a global community of scholars, activists, and practitioners, and this podcast reflects that diversity of thought. The views shared by our guests and hosts are their own, and do not necessarily represent the views of IAFFE.
Quick Resources:
IAFFE website: https://www.iaffe.org/ [https://www.iaffe.org/]
IWPR: https://iwpr.org/ [https://iwpr.org/]
Heidi Hartmann’s Profile: https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/hartm.cfm [https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/hartm.cfm ]
Accessible Version of the Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~hoganr/SOC%20602/Hartmann_1979 [https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~hoganr/SOC%20602/Hartmann_1979]
Dr. Hartmann on “25 Years after FMLA: Research Finds that Paid Leave is a Great Investment”: https://iwpr.org/25-years-after-fmla-research-finds-that-paid-leave-is-a-great-investment/ [https://iwpr.org/25-years-after-fmla-research-finds-that-paid-leave-is-a-great-investment/]
Marilyn Power’s Social Provisioning as a Starting Point for Feminist Economics: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354570042000267608 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354570042000267608]
You can read more about one of our interviewers, Dr. Ozge Ozay, here: https://www.fitchburgstate.edu/about/directory/ozge-ozay [https://www.fitchburgstate.edu/about/directory/ozge-ozay]
Music: Bossy Boots by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com [https://www.silvermansound.com/]
Additional Resources mentioned in today’s episode:
“Do you Qualify for Social Security Benefits through your Spouse or Ex?” (with Ann Hernández Kent). [https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2024/april/social-security-benefits-through-your-spouse-or-ex]Open Vault Blog [https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2024/april/social-security-benefits-through-your-spouse-or-ex], Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. April 24, 2024 [https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2024/april/social-security-benefits-through-your-spouse-or-ex]
Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Slowly Narrowing Gender Pay Gap (with Stephen J. Rose) Washington, DC: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2018. [https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/C474_IWPR-Still-a-Mans-Labor-Market-update-2018-2.pdf]
Toward Our Children’s Keeper: A Data-Driven Analysis of the Interim Report of the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative Shows the Shared Fate of Boys and Girls of Color [https://iwpr.org/toward-our-childrens-keeper-a-data-driven-analysis-of-the-interim-report-of-the-my-brothers-keeper-initiative-shows-the-shared-fate-of-boys-and-girls-of-color/](with Chandra Childers and Elyse Shaw). Produced with Kimberlé Crenshaw, African American Policy Forum. Washington, DC: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2015. [https://iwpr.org/toward-our-childrens-keeper-a-data-driven-analysis-of-the-interim-report-of-the-my-brothers-keeper-initiative-shows-the-shared-fate-of-boys-and-girls-of-color/]
“Feminist Political Economy” (with Jennifer Cohen). Pp. 96-109 in the [https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781789909067/book-part-9781789909067-13.xml]Handbook of Alternative Theories of Political Economy [https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781789909067/book-part-9781789909067-13.xml] ed. by Frank Stillwell, David Primrose, and Tim Thorton. Edward Elgar Publishing. 2022. [https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781789909067/book-part-9781789909067-13.xml]
“Estimating Benefits: Proposed National Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs” (with Jeffrey A. Hayes). Contemporary Economic Policy 39:3, pp. 537-556. 2021.
Unnecessary Losses: Costs to Americans of the Lack of Family and Medical Leave [https://iwpr.org/unnecessary-lossescosts-to-americans-for-the-lack-of-family-and-medical-leave/] (with Roberta Spalter-Roth). Washington, DC: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, May 1989. [https://iwpr.org/unnecessary-lossescosts-to-americans-for-the-lack-of-family-and-medical-leave/]
Women, Work and Wages: Equal Pay for Jobs of Equal Value (Editor with Donald J. Treiman). Final Report of the Committee on Occupational Classification and Analysis, National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1981.
“Contemporary Marxist Theory and Practice: A Feminist Critique” (with Ann R. Markusen). [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/048661348001200210] Review [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/048661348001200210] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/048661348001200210of Radical Political Economics [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/048661348001200210] 12:2, pp. 87-94. 1980. [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/048661348001200210]
“Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation by Sex.” Signs 1:2 Supplement (Spring 1976). Appears in Women and the Workplace: The Implications of Occupational Segregation, eds. Martha Blaxall and Barbara Reagan. (University of Chicago Press, 1976)
