The Socialist Feminist Imaginary

NANCY FOLBRE is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the author of Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (Oxford, 2009), Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family (Harvard, 2009), Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint (Routledge, 1994) and co-editor, with Michael Bittman, of Family Time: The Social Organization of Care (Routledge, 2004). Books she has written for a wider audience include Saving State U (New Press, 2010); The Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (with James Heintz and Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, New Press, 2006 and earlier editions), The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New Press, 2001), and The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual (with Randy Albelda, New Press, 1996). She currently coordinates a working group on care work sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation. You can read her regular contribution to the New York Times Economix Blog at http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/author/nancy-folbre/