Publication type
Thesis/Degree/Other Honours
Author
Publication date
July 1, 2002
Abstract:
This dissertation addresses two questions. Firstly, what is gender inequality? In other words, how should we conceptualise it? Secondly, what is the nature and the extent of gender inequality in Western post-industrial societies?
Chapter 1 outlines a constructivist account of gender. Chapter 2 focuses on one key aspect of gender, i.e. the gender division of labour. It provides an alternative explanatory account of this division, and addresses whether the gender division of labour leads to ethically relevant gender inequalities. Chapter 3 asks in how far these insights on gender and the gender division of labour can be found in the inequality literatures in economics and political philosophy. Amartya Sen's capability approach is selected for the conceptualisation and assessment of gender inequality, because it advocates a plural distribuendum and puts human diversity at its core. The fourth chapter presents an in-depth analysis of Sen's capability approach, and the fifth chapter scrutinizes the capability approach by examining some important critiques. I argue that the main vulnerability of the capability approach is that it can be used in combination with a wide range of assumptions and theories, which each lead to widely divergent normative conclusions. Chapter 6 conceptualises gender inequality by selecting a list of functionings. I discuss why these selected functionings are important for the evaluation of gender inequality and give an overview of gender inequality in these dimensions, drawing on a wide range of empirical studies. Chapter 7 complements this assessment of gender inequality by providing a quantitative empirical assessment based on the British Household Panel Survey. The final chapter reflects on the empirical results of Chapters 6 and 7. These findings suggest that in most dimensions women are clearly worse off than men, but this is not the case for all functionings. The overall assessment of gender inequality can be done either in terms of its constitutive components (with clear results in each case), or through an attempted aggregation, which inescapably involves further valuations. I present both in this dissertation.
Subject
#505891