Economics & History

Victoria grew up in Oldham, on the outskirts of Manchester, a town that was central to Britain’s industrialisation. Inspired by the heritage of the Industrial Revolution, her research has focused on the question of how Europe became the relatively prosperous region it is today, as well as on the challenges faced in the modern age and the lessons that can be learnt from past historical experience. Her early research was guided by one question in particular:

It was a question that Victoria sought to answer by turning to history. In particular, by asking:

It’s a question that is incredibly difficult to answer given that for millenia, all of the interesting action had been taking place well beyond Europe: in China, in the Indus Valley, in Africa and in the Middle East. Not only was Britain a backwater, so was Europe. Victoria’s initial research began by testing a long-standing hypothesis: that free markets were key to the rise of the West. Her first book (published in 2012 and republished in 2016) measured and compared market development in different parts of Europe from the medieval era through to the modern period (1350-1900). She found that markets were, on average, no better developed on the eve of the Industrial Revolution than they were three centuries beforehand. Her conclusion was that markets are not sufficient for economic growth to occur. Victoria’s later research went on to investigate what other factors contribute to economic prosperity.

In her book The Sex Factor, published in 2019, Victoria argued that Europe’s rise was rooted in the - relative - freedoms of women. Traditionally, accounts of the “rise of the West” have focussed almost purely on the lives of men – on the famous male merchants, entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists cast into bronze statues, basking in the sunshine in the centre of our big cities. The Sex Factor argues that women were in fact Europe’s secret weapon, allowing it not only to catch-up with but overtake parts of the world that had been ahead for millennia. While China, India/Pakistan, and the Middle East had long been at the frontier of global civilisation, Victoria argues that the lack of opportunities for women acted as a break on what these economies could achieve.

In her next book - Naked Feminism (published in 2023) - Victoria explores the deep roots of women’s historic lack of opportunity: what she calls “the cult of female modesty” (society’s desire to “protect” women’s bodily honour, with their respect and worth being made conditional on their bodily modesty - on whether their bodies have been touched or seen). She delves into the history of female modesty, including society’s long-lived obsession with women’s virginity, with covering their bodies (including compulsory veiling) and with the demonisation of sex workers (and, more generally, “slut-shaming”). Her book journeys from ancient Egypt through to Ancient Greece and the Roman world, on to the expansion of Christianity, Islam and Confucianism, through to the age of the Puritans and the colonisation of the world by Europeans, and onwards to the sexual revolution of the twentieth century and the “raunch culture” of the present day.

Victoria traces the way in which the pendulum of modesty has swung across time and across place. She argues that an obsession with women’s bodily modesty is central to the policies and practices that hamper women’s lives across the world today, from restrictions on their ability to travel alone or to work alongside men to virginity testing, forced head coverings and female genital mutilation. Rather than protecting women, the focus on women’s bodily modesty leaves them dependent on men, vulnerable to abuse and harassment (including in the form of slut-shaming and revenge-porn), and lacking access to vital sexual and health services (including cancer screening). While this “cult of female modesty” is most associated with countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, any society in which the word “whore” is viewed as an insult to women is also one in which women’s respect and worth depends - to some degree or another - on bodily modesty. Breaking the modesty cult is, Victoria argues, central to ensuring that every women is treated with respect - modest, or otherwise.

Victoria is an outspoken critic of modern economics - for its neglect of women, its lack of historical emphasis and its lack of engagement with the wider social sciences. Practicing what she preaches, her research draws on a multitude of academic subjects bringing feminism, history and economics together, something she believes is necessary to truly understand the linkages between society, politics and the economy. Alongside her own research agenda, and to further the feminist agenda within economics, Victoria has served on the Royal Economic Society Women’s Committee, co-authored the 2021 Royal Economic Society Report The Gender Imbalance in UK Economics, made a public call for a sexual revolution in economics, and spoke out about economics’ neglect of the most marginalised women of all - those involved in what has sometimes been called “oldest trade”. In The Sex Factor, Victoria explains how economics came to be both neglectful of women’s lives and detached from the real world, resulting in policy that fails women, and, in particular, women from marginalised and less prosperous communities. She presents a plan for how economics can become more inclusive, allowing us to build not only a better discipline but a better economy.