HOW DO WE KNOW WHETHER GENDER EQUALITY HAS ARRIVED? Cover Image

КАК МЫ УЗНАЕМ, ЧТО НАСТУПАЕТ ГЕНДЕРНОЕ РАВЕНСТВО?
HOW DO WE KNOW WHETHER GENDER EQUALITY HAS ARRIVED?

Author(s): Irina Evgenevna Kalabikhina
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Education, Gender history, Labor relations, Demography and human biology
Published by: Ивановский государственный университет
Keywords: gender transition; gender equality; time allocation in household; egalitarian society; indicators; economic and demographic factors; gender history;

Summary/Abstract: There are many indicators of gender (in)equality, but we find it difficult to identify indicators of gender equality that would indicate the onset of an egalitarian society. Gender equality has been uneven in individual institutions (eg. the labor market and education) and family ones. The household lags behind individual institutions. The gender transition as one of the historical concepts of the stepwise development of gender equality predicts a stage of equality in both individual and household institutions. That is the last stage of gender transition. How can we measure the completeness of gender transition? How can we define the arrival of the last balanced egalitarian stage? We have simple indicator for the different stages of the gender transition. That is the gender gap in unpaid work. However, we do not know what the breaking point of this gap is when the egalitarian stage comes. 50:50 principle does not work here. I base on the concept of gender transition as a diagram of the historical stages of the movement towards gender equality and describe a number of economic and demographic features of an egalitarian society in addition to reducing the gap between spouses in the time allocation in household. I develop a set of economic conditions from research evidences that can serve as indicators and signs of the egalitarian stage of gender transition. Some of them are following. 1. The economic rationality in the time allocation prevails over socio-cultural (gender) norm. 2. The relationship between the level of female employment (or women‘s income) and the level of fertility (or the stability of marriage) changes from a negative to a positive one. 3. The utility functions of household member include (egalitarian) gender relations. 4. The assortative mating in marriage markets is adapted to a new gender structure in all types of institutions. 5. The subjective well-being of women and men is positively associated with the level of gender equality in society; gender differences in the assessment of subjective wellbeing are not associated with a lack of gender equality. 6. The agency of women is based on the "power within" etc. 7. Maternity penalty and paternity bonus will disappear at the last stage of gender transition. In conclusion I state that the duration of the stages assessment, especially the duration of the second unbalanced stage, seems to matter.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 3-16
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Russian