Our economic analysis is informed by two intersecting value systems: a feminist political economy (FPE) and Catholic Social Thought (CST). This intersection is seldom recognized by either women or practitioners of CST because they too often operate in very separate spheres of research. However, FPE and CST are both constructed on the foundation of the dignity of the human person, community and the global common good as essential for the human person to flourish and societies to be just.

Feminist political economy is based primarily on an inductive approach. It begins with women's experience in the household, the workplace, the community and the body politic. Within these contexts it recognizes the multiplicity and diversity of that experienced as shaped by race, ethnicity, culture, economic class, religion and nationality. It identifies gender as a defining category. Human well-being is central, with particular attention to gender equality as essential to that well-being. It introduces the economic contribution of women's unpaid and invisible work of social reproduction as basic to a flourishing society. Ecological and environmental sustainability is fundamental to achieving human well-being. It calls for women's full participation in their human rights--political, economic, social and cultural--stressing women's personal autonomy and moral agency in all contexts and relationships. In pursuit of the global common good, it advocates for social inclusion and solidarity across families, communities, regions and nation states.

Catholic Social Thought has emerged out of the social conditions the encyclicals were addressing and evolved into a set of principles embodying the fundamentals of Catholic Social teaching. Today, these principles, as well as Scripture, are used deductively in practical applications of Catholic Social teaching to a variety of issues according to the author's reading of the "signs of the times." Life and the dignity of the human person are foundational of all the other CST principles. This foundation is expanded by principles that support its fulfillment, including the role of community, the rights and responsibilities of the person and the community, the dignity of work and the rights of workers, and the global common good. The global common good demands care for earth, good governments and subsidiarity, the promotion of peace and non-violence, the preferential option for those in poverty and global solidarity.

CST and FPE values are complementary and often overlapping giving our analysis and search for alternatives a holistic and grounded approach to economic and social justice for women and men. Both value constructs are critical of the neo-liberal economic model dominating today's world, and bring different nuances to their critiques.