Séminaire « Savoirs de la marge en économie » : communication de Juliette Blavac

Communication :

"Jessica Peixotto’s Path: A Social Economist on the Verge of Marginality"

Juliette Blayac, doctorante en économie, Université Lyon 2

Abstract:

This research delves into the marginal realm of studying a relatively unknown female economist, Jessica Peixotto. In 1900, Peixotto became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Political Economy at UC Berkeley and later the first woman to achieve full professorship at the same institution. In the 1920s, she specialized in cost of living studies, leading the Heller Committee for Research in Social Economics. Peixotto supported labor union leaders who were prosecuted solely for their political engagements by the government. Despite being geographically isolated as a Californian, with most organizational headquarters located on the East Coast, she remained deeply involved in national social issues. This paper aims to present an intellectual biography of a radical economist who, due to her gender, could have easily been dismissed a few years later as merely a "simple" home economist, as Hazel Kyrk was. Additionally, Peixotto was branded alongside Jane Addams and Florence Kelley as a "Red" by Elizabeth Dilling for her involvement in organizations such as the National Consumer’s League and the Foreign Language Information Service, which were very active in improving the living conditions of (new) Americans. While this had no immediate consequences in 1934, the situation evolved differently in the following years.