ROCKING OUR PRIORS

Professor Claudia Goldin joins me to discuss "Career & Family: Women's Century-Long Journey Toward Equity". Why do men dominate top jobs? Is this due to women's choices or discrimination? Why are there more women in management in the USA than Europe? What would reduce the gender pay gap? And so much more. Book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691201788/career-and-family Professor Claudia Goldin: https://scholar.harvard.edu/goldin

This podcast offers some preliminary explorations of The Neolithic Revolution Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages Pre-Colonial Matrilineal and Bilateral Societies The Eurasian Divergence Colonial Latin America The Death of Matriliny Communism Feminist Activism Fraternal Capital It is a work-in-progress. I still have so much to learn. Comments and criticism are very welcome!

Male bosses and male-dominated workplaces consistently fail to recognise and elevate female talent. Rewards and promotions go to those who put in long hours. Men can take advantage of this system because they are emancipated by women who continue to shoulder the burden of social reproduction at home. Thus the contemporary system of employment is predicated on the domestic gender division of labour. Entrenching their first mover advantage, the male nomenklatura tends to disregard women’s expertise and resist family-friendly reforms. So, if you really want to level the playing field, it’s time to smash the fraternity. Full references here: https://www.draliceevans.com/post/smash-the-fraternity

Wherever they ruled, communists engineered cultural change by dethroning religious authorities, educating women, and harnessing them as workhorses. Today, ex-communist countries lead the world for gender parity in education, employment, and management roles. Yet it is my contention that the status of women would have been higher without communism. To the extent that communism suffocated civil society, it choked off strong independent women’s movements and stifled further progress for women that did take place in western societies. One major exception is tribalised or Muslim societies, where female emancipation either would have been severely delayed or never would have happened without communism. If you'd rather read or want the references, here's the blog link: https://www.draliceevans.com/post/did-communism-smash-the-patriarchy

Female employment and political representation have skyrocketed in Iberia. Pioneering the world's first majority-female cabinet, Spain is now the 14th most gender equal country. Italy lags behind, notwithstanding similar economies, climate, legacies of latifundia, and Catholic heritage. What is Spain's feminist secret?

The Middle East is renowned for female seclusion, cousin marriage, and discriminatory family laws. Gulf countries are especially conservative, but have actually seen the world’s greatest leap in female employment. Why is this?

Circa 1900, women in East Asia and South Asia were equally oppressed and unfree. But over the course of the 20th century, gender equality in East Asia advanced far ahead of South Asia. What accounts for this divergence? The first-order difference between East and South Asia is economic development. East Asian women left the countryside in droves to meet the huge demand for labour in the cities and escaped the patriarchal constraints of the village. They earned their own money, supported their parents, and gained independence. By contrast, the slower pace of structural transformation has kept South Asia a more agrarian and less urban society, with fewer opportunities for women to liberate themselves. But growth is not the whole story. Cultural and religious norms have persisted in spite of growth. Even though women in South Asia are having fewer children and are better educated than ever before, they seldom work outside the family or collectively challenge their subordination. By global standards, gender equality indicators in South Asia remain low relative to regions at similar levels of development or even compared with many poorer countries. Blog with hyperlinked references here: https://www.draliceevans.com/post/how-did-east-asia-overtake-south-asia

Indian Muslims have always been free to apply their own personal laws - concerning marriage, divorce and inheritance. Congress upheld legal pluralism, so as not to aggravate the minority. Modi has no such reservations. He is pursuing a Uniform Civil Code, and presents this as a victory for Muslim women. He's probably right. A UCC would improve gender equality - if women can claim their equal rights. To do so, they need economic autonomy and public safety. Full list of references: https://www.draliceevans.com/post/will-the-bjp-save-muslim-women

In a fascinating new paper, Per Fredriksson and Satyendra Gupta find that areas with low irrigation potential have higher female labour force participation and female property rights. Elsewhere, men cooperated between close kin, battled against outsiders for control over valuable irrigation, captured the gains of greater productivity, developed tight bonds of kinship, while women stayed at home. These irrigation societies also tended to become authoritarian, which constrains feminist activism. Paper: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/225005/1/GLO-DP-0681.pdf Blog with pictures of irrigation systems: https://www.draliceevans.com/post/did-irrigation-entrench-the-patriarchy

Gender inequalities can persist alongside economic development. This is partly due to gender beliefs. Seldom seeing egalitarian alternatives or successful resistance, women may internalise their subordination and reluctantly comply with a seemingly unchangeable status quo.