Barbara Bergman: Pioneering Feminist Economist, Occupational Crowding, and the Diversification of Economic Thought

This podcast episode delves into the groundbreaking contributions of Barbara Bergman, a pioneering feminist economist and a founding member of the International Association for Feminist Economics. Her research primarily focused on the intersections of race and gender in economic systems, with significant work on the risks faced by housewives, the economic emergence of women, affirmative action, and her seminal occupational crowding hypothesis. Bergman's career trajectory saw her evolve from initially engaging with mainstream economists like Becker to later becoming a fierce critic of their "preposterous conclusions" and the mainstream's rejection of feminist economic perspectives, advocating for a more inclusive and critical approach to economic analysis.\n\nA central focus of the discussion is Bergman's occupational crowding hypothesis, published in 1971. This theory posits that black workers are crowded into a limited number of occupations, leading to an increased labor supply in those fields and consequently depressing wages. Conversely, occupations reserved for white workers experience a smaller labor supply, resulting in higher wages. What distinguishes Bergman's work is its explicit focus on power dynamics, systemic discrimination, and the material benefits that accrue to white workers as a direct result of this discrimination, a perspective often overlooked by mainstream theories like Becker's "taste for discrimination." She also incorporated concepts like imperfect competition, learned from Edward Chamberlin, further differentiating her approach.\n\nBergman's unique insights were deeply informed by her personal experiences with discrimination as a Jewish woman born in the 1920s, facing occupational segregation, anti-Semitism, sexism, and pay inequities throughout her career. This lived experience provided her with a critical lens that mainstream economists like Becker, Arrow, and Thoreau lacked. Her work extended beyond labor markets to encompass broader feminist economic concerns such as childcare, family economics, and the crucial role of unpaid work, pushing the discipline to move beyond a masculine paradigm and recognize these integral components of the economy.\n\nThe episode concludes by highlighting the broader implications of Bergman's legacy for the discipline of economics, particularly within the history of economic thought. The speaker, Dr. Sarah Small, critiques the historical dominance of "old white men's ideas" in economic syllabi, which alienates diverse students and presents an incomplete picture of economic knowledge. Small's own archival work advocates for a pluralistic approach, urging the inclusion of women, people of color, and scholars from the global South in economic research and teaching. This push for diversification, exemplified by figures like Priscilla Wakefield who criticized Adam Smith for neglecting women's unpaid work, aims to create a more accurate, inclusive, and relevant understanding of economic history and theory.

Bergman is as I think one of the folks who really pushed the discipline to do that and it I think actually quite interestingly she kind of moves into this with more uh ferociousness throughout her career right in in the 70s when she's just got 10 years she's she's very political right she's playing nice with with Becker and all of these other kind of more mainstream thinkers and then you can see in her work slowly as she as she goes on she's talking about Becker and his Preposterous conclusions and being really quite harsh about some of some of the mainstream's um rejection of feminist economics

her occupational crowding hypothesis her theory was that black workers right are crowded into a smaller number of occupations which therefore increases a labor Supply in those occupations therefore reducing the wages in those types of jobs

she is not only just documenting Trends in labor markets but she's really trying to document issues of power right issues of a discrimination and the benefits that accrue to White workers as a result of this discrimination

Bergman is just kind of the one who formalized it using a lot of I think uh more mainstream tools which which brought it into the fold at least for a little while in kind of mainstream economics

she is someone who has this deep personal experience with uh with discrimination in the labor market and so I think she's well positioned in ways that maybe Becker and arrow and Thoreau were not to really think critically about economic theories of discrimination

I think we all maybe are aware that the mainstream kind of still really stands on a lot of Becker's tastes and preferences for discrimination rather than I think the more um critical approaches that deal with with power

when I think about feminist economics I think about power patriarchy and social provisioning and this is something that Bergman touches in all of her work

pushing the the mainstream economic Paradigm to kind of not think in such a masculine way right to think about unpaid work as work to think about the things that Keep Us Alive and happy and thriving and able to go to work as things that are really integral parts of the economy

I found myself feeling really discouraged right to just see a lot of old white men's ideas represented to me it made me feel like uh I didn't see myself in the great Economist

if we are serious um in history of economic thought and economics more broadly about pluralistic approaches to economic thought then we need to be very deliberate about the types of folks that we are citing and thinking about and and referencing in our in our work

you want to talk about Adam Smith well then you could also talk about Priscilla Wakefield who is a contemporary who criticized Adam Smith for not thinking about women's unpaid work