Marilyn Waring published the book If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics in 1988. This publication became the founding document of feminist economics by systematically critiquing how national accounting systems excluded women's unpaid work and the value of nature from economic growth calculations.
The International Association for Feminist Economics formed in 1992 followed by the launch of its journal Feminist Economics in 1994. By the 1990s, feminist economics had become sufficiently recognized as an established subfield within economics to generate book and article publication opportunities for its practitioners.
One study found that married mothers accumulate 84 hours of work per week when combining paid employment with unpaid household tasks compared to 72 hours for all fathers. In the United States, the true value of unpaid work has been estimated between 20 and 50% of total economic output amounting to trillions of dollars annually.
Portugal and Argentina lead SIGI rankings while Afghanistan and Sudan remain significantly behind despite controlling for religion and region factors. The Social Institutions and Gender Index analyzes social institutions societal practices legal norms framing gender inequalities across over 100 countries.
The Gender-related Development Index was introduced in 1995 added a gender-sensitive dimension assessing how wealth distributes between different groups especially genders. These indices shift focus from mechanisms like income or theories such as utilitarianism toward multidimensional concepts including empowerment social status and freedom from discrimination.