Women & Economy Reading List

This is by no means a comprehensive book list. These are simply some books that we have come across and have found particularly helpful and enlightening in our exploration of the topic of women and the economy. We have included a range of historical texts, academic texts, and social commentaries with a special focus on our Manitoba experience. If you have ideas of other books you think we should include, do let us know.

Bakker, Isabella, ed.
The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy
Toronto: North South Institute, 1994.
Essays on women's experiences in a globalized economy.

Barndt, Deborah, ed.
Women Working the NAFTA Food Chain: Women, Food and Globalization.
Toronto: Second Story Press, 1999.
Essays from across the Americas on women and food in a global economy.

CHO!CES and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Show us the Money: The Politics and Process of Alternative Budgets
Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring, 1998.
Workbook on the alternative budget process.

Crittenden, Ann
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001.
Economic implications of motherhood.

Dobson, Ross V.G.
Bringing the Economy Home from the Market
Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1993.
Exploring money and community.

Eyerman, Ann
Women in the Office: transitions in a global economy
Toronto: Sumach Press, 2000.
Portraits of female office workers in today's economy.

George, Robley E.
Socioeconomic Democracy: An advanced socioeconomic system
Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
A proposal that includes a universal guaranteed income and a limit to personal wealth.

Kinnear, Mary
A Female Economy: Women's Work in a Prairie Province 1870-1970
Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998.
Examination of women's work in Manitoba.

Klein, Naomi
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies
Toronto: Knopf Canada, 1999.
Exploring the impact of economic globalization.

Loxley, John.
Alternative Budgets: Budgeting as if People Mattered
Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2003.
Examines the origin and practice of alternative budget work at federal, provincial, and civic levels.

McClung, Nellie
In Times Like These
Toronto: McLeod & Allen, 1915.
Collection of speeches by early Manitoba feminist.

Mutari Ellen and Deborah M. Figart, eds.
Women and the Economy: A Reader
Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2003.
Useful insights from gender studies, demography, history, policy planning, advocacy groups and many other disciplines.

Perkins Gilman, Charlotte
Women and Economics
New York: Source Book Press, 1970 (c.1898).
An early treatise on women's economic subordination.

Roberts, Wayne and Susan Brandum
Get a Life! How to make a good buck, dance around the dinosaurs, and save the world while you're at it
Toronto: Get a Life, 1995.
Practical ideas for living the new economics.

Roberts, Wayne; Rod MacRae and Lori Stahlbrand
Real food for a change: how the simple act of eating can boost your health and energy, knock out stress, revive your community, and clean up the planet
Toronto: Random House, 1999.
Energetic book exploring alternative food systems. Many practical ideas.

Rowbotham, Michael
The Grip of Death: a study of modern money, debt slavery, and destructive economics
Charlbury, Oxfordshire: Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1998.
Exploration of the creation of money through debt and the effect of debt on people.

Saul, John Ralston
On Equilibrium
Toronto: Viking, 2001.
Philosophical explorations on what society values most.

Schumacher, E.F.
Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
Vancouver: Hartley & Marks, 1973 (commentaries 1999).
Early call for a new economics.

Shiva, Vandana
Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development
London: Zed Books, 1999.
Passionate essay on women, food, and economics.

Silver, Jim, ed.
Solutions that Work: Fighting Poverty in Winnipeg
Winnipeg: CCPA and Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2000.
Essays on one community's approach to ending poverty.

Swanson, Jean
Poor-bashing: the politics of exclusion
Toronto: Between the Lines, 2001.
Excellent summary of anti-poverty sentiment and policy across the country and analysis of its origins. Very accessible.

Turnbull, Lorna A.
Double Jeopardy: Motherwork and the Law
Toronto: Sumach Press, 2001.
A critical look at how the law does, or doesn’t, support women’s mothering work.

Waring, Marilyn
Counting for Nothing: What Men Value, and What Women are Worth
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000 (2nd edition).
The original feminist economics text.

Wichterich, Christa
The Globalized Woman: Reports from a Future of Inequality
New York: Zed Books, 2000.
Global reports on the impact of economic globalization on women's lives.