New Books in Economics Cordelia Fine, "Patriarchy Inc.: What We Get Wrong About Gender Equality – and Why Men Still Win at Work" (W.W. Norton, 2025)
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Sep 1, 2025 
Cordelia Fine, a Canadian-born British philosopher and writer, dives deep into gender inequality and workplace dynamics. She critiques existing narratives around gender equality and calls for a broader understanding that goes beyond biological determinism. Fine discusses the impact of cultural constructs on gender roles, the persistent wage gap, and challenges faced by women in the workforce, such as the motherhood penalty. She also highlights the shortcomings of superficial diversity initiatives and emphasizes the need for effective, structural changes to achieve true equality.
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Flawed Framings Of Gender Equality
- Two dominant framings — 'different but equal' and the 'business case' — misdiagnose gender gaps at work.
- Cordelia Fine argues these framings obscure structural causes and stall meaningful change.
Evolutionary Claims Overstate Biological Fixity
- Evolutionary psychology often attributes workplace gender gaps to innate sex differences.
- Fine counters that cultural and cross-cultural evidence shows much greater plasticity than those accounts allow.
Occupational Gender Shifts Over Decades
- Occupations like computing shifted from female-dominated to male-dominated within decades.
- Historical examples show gendering of work can reverse, undermining fixed biological explanations.
