As evidence of women's exclusion from economic study emerges, interrogation of the discipline is crucial. While feminist scholars have extensively examined the barriers women face in contemporary economics, less attention has been given to the historical evolution of the field and its disciplinary formation. Drawing on primary sources related to the University of Oxford's Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) degree, this article aims to address this silence. It explores how economics' evolution within PPE (re)produced or challenged dominant conceptualisations about "legitimate" knowledge and authorities, and the corresponding impact on women's status. This analysis highlights the social construction of economics within institutions like Oxford, and university complicity in women's marginalisation. However, this construction did not necessarily follow a linear trajectory; the boundaries of economics appear a product of contestation. Perhaps, then, these boundaries can be renegotiated in the twenty-first century, creating space for a more holistic discipline.