Until recently, there has been very little analysis of women's role in the economy. Two centuries ago, Mary Wollstonecraft published her proto-feminist "A Vindication of the Rights of Women," and in 1869 John Stuart Mill, inspired by his wife Harriet, wrote "The Subjection of Women" in support of female suffrage.
But new evidence is emerging of the cultural barriers to women's economic advancement, which must be addressed if the world is ever to attain its goal of gender equality.
Early contributions to the economics of gender focused on the division of labor within households. Ideas drawn from trade theory — such as specialization and comparative advantage — were used to explain why in the developed world men tended to work outside of the home and women within it.