Barbara Bergmann

Barbara Bergmann (born 1927) is a forerunner in feminist economics with a passion for social policy and equality, especially relating to discrimination on account of race or sex. Her work covers many topics from childcare and women’s issues to poverty and Social Security. For many years, Bergmann has been a recognized feminist economist and is a leading representative of progressive feminist economic ideas in many organizations around the world. She is a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security. She is now a Professor Emerita of Economics at the University of Maryland and American University.

History

Barbara Bergmann’s grandparents, fleeing anti-Semitism, immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe in 1914 and she was born in 1927 to a working family in the Bronx. Her parents worked instead of finishing school, but they expected Barbara and her siblings to adhere to the standards and traditions of American life and eventually go to college. At the age of five, she started formulating ideas about feminism, pursuing equality for men and women, because she wanted to be an independent person when she grew up, and that required money and equality. During the Great Depression, Bergmann developed a strong belief that the government should provide resources and help to individuals who faced uncontrollable circumstances or did not have the resources and knowledge to provide for themselves.

Bergmann received a scholarship to Cornell University and majored in mathematics. While in college pursuing her love for “creating models of simple processes that might or might not resemble what goes on in the actual economy,” she discovered Gunnar Myrdal’s book "An American Dilemma" that told of the racial inequality in the South. Myrdal’s book ignited an interest in race discrimination that eventually developed into a concern for sex discrimination and followed Bergmann throughout her career.

After Barbara Bergmann graduated with a B.A. in 1948, the recession, discrimination against Jews, and workplace sex segregation made it difficult to find a job that was interesting. Bergmann took a job with the federal government in the New York Office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics where she fielded public inquiries; she was head of the inquiries unit after a year. A firsthand experience with the discrimination of a black employee at the Bureau of Labor Statistics illuminated how real and pervasive race discrimination was at the time. Harvey Purdy was the only black employee at the New York office and, when Barbara managed to get him promoted, he was demoted shortly after and the job was given to someone else.

Bergmann received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and developed an interest in computer simulated economics, realizing that economics should be based more on observation and field research than solely theorizing. Research and experience has led Barbara Bergmann to develop theories and ideas about government policy, the implementation of observation into economics, and racial and gender equality.Email Interview between Barbara Bergmann and Tara Grigg. March 28, 2007.]

Organizational Involvement

During the Kennedy administration Barbara Bergmann was a senior staff member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and she was a Senior Economic Adviser with the Agency for International Development. She also served as an advisor to the Congressional Budget Office and the Bureau of the Census. In addition to her government service, Bergmann was also involved in numerous national and international organizations that promote advancement and equality. She served as chair of the American Economic Association Committee on the Status of Women in Economic Professions, and president of the Eastern Economic Association, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, the American Association of University Professors, and the International Organization for Feminist Economics [http://www.american.edu/cas/econ/faculty/bergmann.htm]

Awards

Barbara Bergmann received the 2004 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award for increasing the status of women in economics and creating an understanding of how women can advance in the academic field [ [http://www.cswep.org/PDFs/Bell_announcement.pdf DR ] ]

Ideas

Economics

Bergmann argues that “a lot of what is bad does come from capitalism, but that can be corrected by appropriate government regulations, and by the generous government provision of important services and safety nets. But a lot of what is good and indispensable comes from capitalism too”

Bergmann studied microsimulation at Harvard University with computer generated simulation that provided a model with equations of macro variables constructed on analogies of microeconomics. She believes that microsimulation provides “rigor, realism, and an ability to incorporate complexities revealed by more empirical investigations into the workings of business.” [Email Interview between Barbara Bergmann and Tara Grigg. March 28, 2007] In a class with Professor Edward Chamberlin at Harvard, Bergmann discovered that economic theory, regardless of its ingenuity or prevalence in the field, can actually produce a different picture of the economy than reality. It was in a market experiment in Chamberlin’s class that Bergmann started to believe that economic theory needed to be influenced by actual observation of individuals. One of her personal views of economics is “that true anecdotes may well contain more valuable information about the state of things in the world than do economists’ theories, which are by and large nothing but (possibly untrue) stories made up by economists sitting in their offices, with no factual input whatever” [ Email Interview with Barbara Bergmann ] .

Bergmann’s work attests to the way that some economists allow political affiliation to affect their work and theories – economists sometimes produce theories and ideas that support their personal or political views. The lack of empirical evidence and observation also makes economics less of a hard science, and thus a social science, making it potentially more prone to biases from the social factors. Bergmann holds that observation and empirical evidence can lead to theories that actually reflect human behavior instead of producing theories on paper that do not always work in reality. She argues that macroeconomics can fix many social problems and economic policy can be used to enhance the lives of individuals, but economists are too persuaded by political affiliation to work toward a common goal [Bergmann, Barbara. 2005. “The Current State of Economics: Needs a Lot of Work.” "Annals of Political and Social Science." Pp.1-16.]

Gender Equality

Barbara Bergmann notes that equality of the sexes was not present throughout civilization – around there is an economic and social division of labor between men and women historically. Although there has been an influx of women into the labor market and men are performing a larger amount of household labor, there is still an economic division between men and women. Bergmann views the best and most feasible option for equality to be “high commodification” where many of the household tasks and childcare predominantly performed by women are outsourced to organizations and individuals. “High commodification” would include government subsidies for childcare and availability for stipends for married couples and single mothers. Bergmann believes that an increase in commodificaion alone cannot bring about equality, but there also needs to be “an end to discrimination in employment, highly competitive behavior by women, and extra resources from government for families who are raising children.” Bergmann has a passion for gender equality and desires to see government provisions for equitable treatment of women in the workforce. [Bergmann, Barbara. 1998. “The Only Ticket to Equality: Total Androgyny, Male Style.” "Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues" Spring Vol. 9:75-86.]

Publications

* "America’s Child Care Problem: The Way Out" (with Suzanne Helburn). New York: Palgrave, St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
* "The Economic Emergence of Women" (Second edition). New York: Palgrave, St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
* "Is Social Security Broke?: A Cartoon Guide to the Issues" (cartoons by Jim Bush). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
* “The Only Ticket to Equality: Total Androgyny, Male Style,” "Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues", Volume 9, Spring 1998: 75-86.
* "In Defense of Affirmative Action." New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1996.
* "Saving Our Children From Poverty: What the United States Can Learn From France." New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996.
* "Becker's Theory of the Family: Preposterous Conclusions," "Feminist Economics," Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1995. (Reprinted in Challenge, January/February 1996.)
* "Child Support Awards: State Guidelines Versus Public Opinion" (with Sherry Wetchler). "Family Law Quarterly," Fall 1995, 29,3: 483-493.
* "A Budget-Based Definition of Poverty, With an Application to Single-Parent Families," (with Trudi J. Renwick). "Journal of Human Resources" 28:1. Winter 1993. 1-24.
* Nancy Folbre, Barbara R. Bergmann, Gita Sen, Maria Floro, eds., "Women's Work in the World Economy." London: Macmillan, 1991.
* "The Economic Emergence of Women." New York: Basic Books, 1986.
* "A Microsimulated Transactions Model of the United States Economy" (with Robert Bennett). Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.
* "Micro Simulation - Models, Methods and Applications" (Edited, with Gunnar Eliasson and Guy Orcutt). Almqvist and Wiksell International, 1977.
* "Structural Unemployment in the United States," (with David Kaun). U.S. Department of Commerce, 1967.
* "The Impact of Highway Investment on Development," (with George W. Wilson, Leon V. Hirsch and Martin S. Klein). The Brookings Institution, 1966.
* "Projection of a Metropolis," (with Benjamin Chinitz and Edgar Hoover). Harvard University Press, 1961.

Notes

References

* Bergmann, Barbara. 1998. “The Only Ticket to Equality: Total Androgyny, Male Style.” "Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues" Spring Vol. 9:75-86.
* Bergmann, Barbara. 2005. “The Current State of Economics: Needs a Lot of Work.” "Annals of Political and Social Science." Pp.1-16.

External links

* http://www.cswep.org/PDFs/Bell_announcement.pdf
* http://www.american.edu/cas/econ/faculty/bergmann.htm
* [http://www.iaffe.org International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE)]
* [http://www.feministeconomics.org Journal of Feminist Economics]