Transcript Comparing Complex Inequalities in a Global Context

Comparing Complex Inequalities
in a Global Context
Sylvia Walby
UNESCO Chair in Gender Research
Lancaster University
Introduction
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Contested approaches to equality
Contested concepts of fairness and progress
Broadening the concept of equality
Measuring changes in inequality and progress,
implications of:
– Globalisation and varieties of modernity
– Gender and class
Contested approaches to equality
• Multiple complex inequalities:
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–
–
Class, gender, ethnicity, disability age, religion, sexual orientation
Intersecting: mutually constitutive or mutually adapting (Crenshaw, McCall)
Difference and diversity
Sameness/difference/transformation (Fraser, Rees, Scott)
• Legitimacy of arenas for equality/equal treatment
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–
–
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Negotiation; trade unions; NGOs; state, law; equality commissions
EU: Treaties (Rome, Amsterdam), Directives
Equal treatment in employment, sale of goods and services
Mainstreaming: duty on public bodies to promote equality
EU: Gender gaps in employment, pay
• Dimensions of equality
– Economic: employment, wages, income (individual, household), wealth,
education (Hills)
– Longevity (UNDP) (infant, maternal mortality: MDG)
– Depth of democracy: suffrage, presence, range
Frameworks of fairness and progress
• “Progress”: competing projects
• Equality
– In itself; for other outcomes (Wilkinson , Picket)
– Equal treatment (legal)
• Human rights
– Universal (UN); minimal thresholds
• Economic development/growth
– Income per person (most governments)
• Human development
– Longevity, education, income (Sen)
• UNDP, MDG (UN, World Bank, OECD)
– Capabilities (Sen)
• GEO measurement framework (Vizard, Burchardt)
Globalization and inequalities
• Multiple global processes
– Globalization challenge to ‘nation-state = society’
– World not fully global
– Societalisation as a process
• Increase in inequality?
– Some regions not others?
– Some inequalities not others?
• Are class, gender and ethnic relations changing in the same or
different ways?
• Units for analysis?
– Tension between use of ‘global’ and ‘country’ as units of
analysis for study of inequality
Varieties of modernity:
neoliberal to social democratic
• Global regions
– Global North: neoliberalism to social democracy
• Continuum (Kenworthy > Esping-Andersen)
– More e.g. China state capitalist
• In all regimes of inequality: gender regime as well as class
• Key distinction: Inequality and democratic governance
• Economy
– Regulation of finance and employment; state welfare
• Polity
– Depth of democracy: suffrage, presence, range of institutions
• Violence
– Regulation of violence against women and minorities; minimal deployment in
war
• Civil society
– Mutualism or commercialisation
Neoliberalism and social democracy
• Key differences between neoliberalism and social democracy:
– Depth of democracy: governance through democracy rather than
by capital or the market
– Extent of inequality
• Neoliberalism and social democracy are:
– not confined to class relations, but extend to gender relations and
other regimes of inequality
– Not confined to the domain of the economy, but extend to polity,
violence and civil society as well
Comparing changes in equality and
progress: concepts and measurement
• Longevity and income
• Economic development/growth
• Measuring economic inequality
– implications of globalization and households
• Knowledge economy
• Financial crisis, global regions and gender
• Non-economic inequalities
– Democracy
– violence
Longevity and income: 1975-2005
World
USA
EU
UK
Life: 1975
61.7
72.6
72.3
72.7
Life : 2005
67.6
77.7
79.7
79.0
% increase
9.6
7.0
10.2
8.7
Income$: 1975 4867
19830
14359
15506
Income$: 2005 8477
37436
26037
28628
% increase
89
81
85
74
Longevity and income:
Comparing USA and EU 1975-2005
• US citizens are richer than in EU
– US: $37436; EU:$26037
• (2005, PPP, $constant2000,EMU) (World Bank)
• US citizens die sooner than in EU
– US: 77.7; EU 79.7
• (2005, EMU) (World Bank)
• USA
– More growth in income: 89%
– Smaller increase in longevity: 7.0% (5.1 years)
• EU
– Less but still significant growth in income - 81%
– Larger increase in longevity: 10.2% (7.4 years)
• US less effective than EU in turning income into life
– Neoliberalism less efficient than social democracy
‘Global’ economic inequalities:
Which unit: country or world?
• Is global inequality going up or down?
• What unit? (Milanovic)
– inequalities in each country, summed, OR
– world as a whole
• Each country, summed
– Inequality within many countries is increasing (Korzeniewicz and
Moran)
• World
– Inequalities between countries are greater than inequalities within
countries (Korzeniewicz)
– Fast economic growth in China (and India) is reducing overall global
economic inequality (Firebaugh)
• In transition, from country to world as key unit
Which unit to measure economic inequality:
Household or individual?
• Most comparative work on global economic
inequalities uses household as unit of analysis
– Most shows increase in class inequality within
countries
• Household as unit makes economic gender
inequalities invisible
– False assumption of equal sharing in household
– Changes in gender inequality invisible
Cchanges using Gini and household as
unit, OECD
Mid-1980s
2000
Australia
31.2
30.5
Austria
23.6
25.2
Canada
28.7
30.1
Denmark
22.8
22.5
Finland
20.7
26.1
France
27.6
27.3
Greece
33.6
34.5
Ireland
33.1
30.4
Italy
30.6
34.7
Japan
27.8
31.4
Luxembourg
24.7
26.1
Class changes using Gini and
household as unit, OECD
Mid-1980s
2000
Mexico
45.1
48.0
Netherlands
23.4
25.1
New Zealand
27.0
33.7
Norway
13.4
26.1
Spain
36.7
32.9
Sweden
19.9
24.3
Turkey
43.5
43.9
UK
28.6
32.6
US
33.8
36.1
OECD average
29.3
30.9
Female employment rate 1997, 2007, EU
EU (27 countries)
51.4
58.3
Belgium
46.5
55.3
Denmark
69.1
73.2
Germany
55.3
64.0
Ireland
45.9
60.6
Greece
39.3
47.9
Spain
34.6
54.7
France
52.4
60.0
Italy
36.4
46.6
Luxembourg
45.3
55.0
Hungary
45.4
50.9
Netherlands
58.0
69.6
Austria
58.6
64.4
Poland
51.3
50.6
Portugal
56.5
61.9
Romania
59.1
52.8
Slovenia
58.0
62.6
Finland
60.3
68.5
Sweden
67.2
71.8
United Kingdom
63.1
65.5
Gender pay gap, 1996, 2006, EU
EU (27 countries)
17
15
Belgium
10
7
Denmark
15
17
Germany
21
22
Ireland
21
9
Greece
15
9
Spain
14
13
France
13
11
Italy
8
9
Luxembourg
19
14
Hungary
23
11
Netherlands
23
18
Austria
20
20
Portugal
6
9
Romania
24
10
Slovenia
15
8
Finland
17
20
Sweden
17
16
United Kingdom
24
21
Divergent
class and gender inequalities
• Changes in class focused and gender focused
inequalities are changing in opposite
directions
• Gender system and class system do not map
onto each other,
– but intersect and mutually adapt
Gender and the unit of measurement
of inequality
• Household
• Individual
– Gender employment gap (EU)
• Same standard? Transformation?
• How is domestic care work positioned? Equal valuation
of different contributions?
• Significance varies by global region and form of gender
regime
– Gender pay gap (EU)
• Same standard?
Knowledge economy
• What is the knowledge economy?
• Gendered definitions
– High tech manufacturing:
• largely male
– ICT/IT:
• largely male
– Knowledge intensive services
• Education, health, financial services
• Gender balance, slightly more women
• Gendered implications of policy
Gender and the financial crisis
• Which gender is hurt most in different global
regions?
• First wave of job losses
– North
– Southern regions
• Second wave of job losses
– North
– Southern regions
• Depends on regionally specific occupational and
industrial gender segregation
Depth of Democracy
Social democracy deeper democracy than neoliberalism
1.
No hereditary or unelected positions
2.
no colonies
3.
no non-democratic polities, e.g. organised religion;
4.
universal suffrage, de facto as well as de jure;
5.
Elections: and whether free, fair, competitive elections; free speech,
association
6.
low cost of electioneering
7.
electoral system with proportional representation;
8.
quotas for under-represented groups
9.
proportionate parliamentary presence: e.g. women
10. range of institutions governed by democratic polity
Violence
• Violence as fourth institutional domain
alongside economy, polity and civil society
• Constitutive as well as outcome of inequalities
• Is violence an inequality in itself as well?
• Clustering of inter-personal and inter-state
violence
• Correlation of violence with inequality
Variations in violence
USA
EU
UK
Homicide rate per 100,000
5.56
1.59
1.61
Death penalty
Yes
No
No
Prison population per
100,000
689
87
129
Military % government
expenditure
19.3
4.6
6.3
Military expenditure % GDP
4.1
1.7
2.6
Correlation between different
forms of violence, OECD
Homicide
Prisoners
Death
pen
alty
Military %
govt
spend
Prisoners
.851**
Death penalty
.454**
.589**
Military % govt
spend
.681**
.629**
.787**
Military % GDP
.658**
.614**
.332
.786**
Law/order % GDP
.671**
.660**
.037
.121
Military %
GDP
.551*
Conclusions
• Concept and measurement of equality
– Include more domains than income and employment
• Longevity, depth of democracy, violence
• When longevity used to compare countries, EU>USA.
• Variations in violence matter
– Globalization
• If global the unit then inequality decreasing; if summation of
countries, then inequality increasing
• Class and gender inequalities not changing in the same
direction
• Emergence of new gendered political constituencies
• Inequality: core concept for social science and public
policy