Massachusetts, Boston– F is for feminism and this was the mantra on the closing plenary of the 33rd International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) Annual Conference 2025 that was held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst from July 3 – 5, 2025e. This provocative session set the tone for a bold and unapologetic platform that sought to reimagine global economics through a feminist lens.
Speaking during the sesssion, Sara Cantillon said, “ The timing of discussing feminism is now. ” Cantillon noted that the contemporary times cannot not impede the epistemology of feminism because its quintissentialism outweighs time.
Accordingly, İlkkaracan, a professor of economics at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Faculty of Management, and associate director of the ITU Women’s Studies, said, ” I claim the term feminism in my classroom and my students are opened to it.” This notwithstanding, feminism is still an ideology that many seem to be ambivalent about.
İlkkaracan acknowledged that the nuance of feminism does not come easy because in some cases, she has been requested to “hush!” This she claimed happens predominatly in conferences that predominantly have government officials.
İlkkaracan admitted that she has had to be mindful of her audince partcilarly while engaging iwth the government officials while discussing “gender.” I was invited to speak in a conference and I had to drop the word gender, yet, gender is a main content of feminist economics.” confessed İlkkaracan.
Despite this rather unwelcoming view of gender and feminism, İlkkaracan still sees the essence of mainstreaming feminism.
“Beyond being political the feminist narrative is now conceptualized in the gender, ” said İlkkaracan, “The economy must be alive to feminism.”
Speaking with the same tone, Elissa Braunstein the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs and Professor of Economics in the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University and the current chair of the Research committee at IAFFE said, “The dominance of empirical work in feminist economics is so critical.” Braunstein reiterated that while feminist is not necessarily a natural science, it is a persuasive empirical idea that has been underscored by the Journal International Women Studies.
Braunstein admitted that sometimes proving that feminism empiricism is not easy, however, the. fact that qualitative and quantiative data is used to discuss feminist reasearch, it does in deed qualify as an empirical study that warrants attention.
Braunstein also said that feminism is very distinctive because it is grounded in empiricism particularly because it interrogates economic models that in turn reproduce gender powers. She maintained that IAFFE has been successful in advancing the feminist scholarship and enabling research that addresses critical issues of gender and power in economic systems.
Braunstein also highlighted that IAFFE has published a high proportion of global south scholars and international orientation is exceptionally strong. Feminist economics according to Braunstein is under-cited in academia. Braunstein admitted that the pathway of feminist economics is quintissential.
Accordingly, Radhika Balakrishnan, a Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University said, “We should celebrate everything IAFFE feminist scholarship has done in the last few years.”
Balakrishnan lauded the milestones feminists and by extension feminism has cahievd in the last four decades. Balakrishnan also noted that there is room for more to be done and young scholars now have an opprtunity to dive deep into the feminism ideology.
In a rejoinder to the same coversation, Luiza Nassif Pires a research fellow working in the Gender Equality and the Economy program said, ” The necessity of feminist economists is for academic activism”. Pires underscored that there is room for academic activism for feminism that requires intentionality.
“Bringing feminism into academic activism has been a long process,” lauded Pires,” Academic activism for feminism economics is not an easy journey. ”
Pires said that feminism in academia requires mentorship. She said embracing feminism in economics means that we need to understand how our relived experiences merge with current realities.
Pires emphasized that becoming a better feminised requires intentionality in challenging barriers that oppress. She also said that the need to take a feminist epistemological advantage.