When philosophy doctoral student Arundhati Singh wants to learn something new, she often turns to podcasts. But it didn’t work when she needed to expand her knowledge of the intersection between feminist philosophy and economics – she couldn’t find any podcasts on the subject. So, she created her own as a summer experiment.
The Pinkonomics Podcast explores “the economics of womanhood, with perspectives from philosophy, economics, sociology, and law,” Singh writes on her podcast site. Four episodes in, she’s covered topics including game theory and bargaining models, and the economics of sexual violence and thinness.
“The economy is a system with agents who deal in power,” Singh said. “I want to examine the choices of women in the economy and explore why the position of women is still subordinate to that of men.”
Singh said she approached the task using game theory and logic, to “strategize how women can go forward in this economic game that we seem to be stuck with,” she said.
She wants to answer questions such as:
- What does poverty look like when you account for household inequality?
- Why is it that women do most of the household chores even when they’re working full-time?
- Why is there a gendered wage gap in every country on the planet?
- Why don’t female businesses get as much venture funding as male businesses?
“I love podcasts, so I thought this could offer a much-needed project in public philosophy,” she said. “It makes both philosophy and economics more accessible to people.”
Singh’s research focus is actually ancient philosophy, particularly Plato, but she has multiple interests in related topics including linguistics, economics, law and game theory.
“With the podcast, I’m trying to show that economics is not as obscure as it is made out to be,” she said. “The field of economics is super male-dominated, but women make up half the economy. They make economic decisions every day -- they decide how they’re going to spend their time, how they’ll spend their money, how they’ll spend their time to earn money, how they’ll give up earning money so they can spend their time at home. That is all economics.”
Singh plans to upload one episode each week during the summer and then evaluate in the fall whether to continue.
“I want to start a conversation,” she said, “which might continue if it’s something people are interested in. I certainly can’t cover everything I want to this summer.”
