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Distribution and recognition Nancy Fraser – claims for social justice/equality based on socio-economic redistribution legal or cultural recognition This week (re)distribution and equality Next week recognition and equality
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Lecture outline Today our discussion of (re)distribution and equality will be in three parts: The politics of redistribution How to measure inequality The relationship between economic inequality and power
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Feminism and equality Feminist movement of 1960s and 1970s demanded equal sexual rights and the end of the sexual double standard equal political representation equal access to education Liberal feminists had already made demands to: improve access to material resources Improve women’s bargaining power Reduce men’s power over women
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Marxism and equality Redistribution of resources also central to Marxist/socialist tradition but focus was on need to redistribute resources on basis of class; gender equality would follow from this. Engels – women’s participation in labour force key to gender equality Socialist feminist and liberal feminists agreed about importance of women’s integration into the labour force
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Need In Communist Manifesto ‘From each according to his [sic] need, to each according to his ability’ Idea of need Equal distribution may not be a socially just distribution People’s needs differ
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The family wage 19 th century struggle for family wage was about distribution of resources Fighting for redistribution from capitalist class to working class From women to men within the working class Labour movement demand for family wage was opposed to feminist demands for equal pay
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Individualisation and globalisation Increased women’s participation in the workforce Decline of male-breadwinner family model Beck, Giddens, Castells, Bauman argue that individualisation and globalisation have increased women’s independence Increased women’s bargaining power in family Thereby undermining patriarchy
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Problems of measuring inequality Demand for equality in terms of income and wealth is distributional equality – in principal easy to measure But which unit of comparison should we use? Family-household (‘black box’) or individual? We can’t assume resources are equally distributed within households Some individuals need more than others, e.g. of disabilities
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Does inequality matter? Anne Phillips argues that it does What are the effects of inequality on power? Women have different interests because gender cuts across hierarchies of class, social status and ‘race’/ethnicity Increase in economic power/ decrease in economic inequality may not translate directly into power
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‘Power to’ and ‘power over’ 1. ‘Power to’ Power to is the ability to do things – to act Trade off submission to power of others over them in exchange for enhanced power to do certain things Access to resources gives women power to Enhances negotiating position within household 2. ‘Power over’ Greater economic equality between women and men has given some women experience of power over others, e.g. as managers Also as employers within the domestic sphere
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Inequalities still exist Globally, “Women make up 70% of the world's working hours and earn only 10% of the world's income and half of what men earn” (Guardian, 27 th March 2013). In the UK, over all forms of employment, the pay gap between men’s and women’s hourly earnings is 20% according to a European Commission report out this year (EC, Tackling the Gender Pay Gap in the EU 2013). In the UK disabled women experience a 31% pay penalty compared to non-disabled men (EHRC, 2010). 60% of women reaching state pension age in 2008 were entitled to less than the full basic state pension, compared to 10% of men (Ibid.). Only 1 in 4 Bangladeshi and Pakistani women, works and almost half of Bangladeshi (49%) and Pakistani (44%) women are looking after the family or home, compared to 20% or fewer of other groups (Ibid.). Only 1 in 40 households today are defined as overcrowded – however female-headed households are four times as likely as average to be overcrowded (Ibid.).
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Conclusions Equality/redistribution is one of the aims of both ‘second wave’ feminism and socialism. Measuring inequality is problematic. While it’s easiest to measure income inequality the question remains: what unit of measurement should we use? There is a relationship between economic inequality and power. Men generally have greater decision-making power, this relates to their greater earning capacity and therefore access to resources. We need to distinguish between ‘power to’ and ‘power over’. Despite 40 years of Equal Pay Act, the gender pay gap persists.
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