ROCKING OUR PRIORS

Lead poisoning rots your brain. Babies exposed to lead are more likely to academically under-perform, get suspended, and become violent criminals. As far as I am aware, no one has researched how lead impacts gender. But the existing evidence suggests it could be seriously corrosive - especially in low and middle-income countries.

Status inequalities persist if they are normalised and culturally celebrated, while critics are shamed, disparaged and ostracised. Culture only changes when masses of people speak out in solidarity, embolden each other with righteous resistance, and collectively establish expectations of equality. I call these “Reverse Dominance Coalitions”.This Substack is split into 3 parts: - A Global Culture of Patriarchy - Reverse Dominance Coalitions (RDCs) - How RDCs Can Foster Gender Equality

“Violent Intimacy” - a new book by Tiantian Zhen - highlights how the Chinese state perpetuates extreme cruelty.

Both conservatives and progressives typically presume that falling fertility is due to a shift in women’s preferences. Conservatives often lay blame on “over-educated women”, privileging their careers. Progressives, meanwhile, emphasise women’s burdens. Since men and the state provide so little support, motherhood is an unbearable hit (Doepke et al 2022). Right and left both assume that men would love to have more kids, but fertility is being dragged down by women. Is that assumption correct?

Parenting, violence & fertility: 4 papers from Libertad Gonzalez by Dr Alice Evans

I was just asked to define patriarchy in two sentences. Let me try! In patriarchal societies, prestigious positions are dominated by men; this reinforces beliefs that men are more competent in socially valued domains, deserving of deference, and speak with authority. Feeling entitled to higher status, men may react aggressively if given insufficient respect.

In 2007, the Spanish government introduced 2 weeks of paternity leave. A fantastic new paper by Lídia Farré, Christina Felfe, Libertad González and Patrick Schneider finds that children of eligible fathers are now much more gender equal. Why might this be? I suggest that Spain’s post-Franco secular backlash and relentless feminist mobilisation have pushed inequalities to the forefront of public conversations. Widespread endorsement of feminism accelerates cultural change because egalitarians anticipate social support. Spanish fathers overcame the coordination failure that elsewhere suppresses uptake of parental leave. Their children are now much more gender equal. Drawing on new work in neuroscience, I suggest this is because Spanish fathers’ bonding with their babies promoted long-run care-giving.

Why have some countries undergone rapid cultural change, while others are marked by persistence? And why does social norm policing often revolve around gender? One key mediating factor is the great economic divergence. Some countries are now rich, while others remain poor. In places with weak job creation and chronic precarity, people remain heavily dependent on kinship networks. Men maintain inclusion in vital networks by ensuring their families conform to established strictures. Fear of social exclusion motivates an instrumental concern for approval. Insecurity and instability - exacerbated by conflicts and ecological threats - may also generate intrinsic desires for group conformity and norm enforcement. Economics is not the whole story, however. Latin America and MENA have undergone similar growth trajectories, yet Latin Americans have become considerably more liberal, secular and supportive of gender equality. Precarity thus only partly explains cultural persistence.

Norms matter, but how exactly? What are the precise mechanisms of cultural persistence? Drawing on my qualitative research in India, Mexico, Morocco, Zambia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Italy and Turkey, I suggest 8 ways in which culture perpetuates gender inequalities: Loving mothers reproduce patriarchal sons Men amass advantage and expect respect Concern for social approval Male-dominated public spaces are seen as lecherous Dissent is suppressed Despondency traps Cultural celebrations naturalise inequalities Religion

Andrew Tate gained notoriety on social media for espousing sexism. A new public opinion poll by YouGov rocks my priors. Favourability is far higher than I expected. 14% of young British men agree that a wife is her husband’s property. Does this reflect genuine resentment of women’s education and employment, as well as rejection on dating apps, or should we blame social media? Determining media impact is challenging, as consumption is driven by demand. But looking back through human history as well as more recent studies on corporate algorithms, we can posit a likely explanation. Rich, successful people are widely revered. Wielding influence and charisma, they can steer public opinion, especially if they’re boosted by corporate algorithms.