Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

The Next Stage Of Women’s Emancipation?

Robert Skidelsky 28th February 2018

Robert Skidelsky

Robert Skidelsky

February 6, 2018, marked the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, which enfranchised (some) women in Britain for the first time – a reward for women’s work during World War I. In honor of this historic event, statues of two leaders in the struggle for women’s suffrage, Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst, are to be erected in British cities.

The economic emancipation of women had to wait till after World War II, when permanent male labor shortages – the result, incidentally, of Keynesian full-employment policies – pulled ever more women out of domesticity and into factories and shops. This second wave of emancipation concentrated on economic inequalities, especially discrimination in job selection and disparities in pay and property rights.

These battles have also mainly been won. Discrimination in inheritance is long gone, and equal pay for equal work is accepted in theory, though a gender bias persists (as it does for selection to senior posts). For example, Carrie Gracie recently resigned as the BBC’s China editor in protest against unequal pay between male and female editors, shaming six top male employees to agree to substantial wage cuts.

It is only a matter of time – of overcoming habit, prejudice, and inertia – before what is accepted in principle becomes practice. The most interesting remaining argument for unequal treatment relates to activities for which there is a premium on physical qualities, as in sport. In traditional societies, men did the fighting, because they were stronger, faster, and taller. Not surprisingly, one of the last remaining bastions of unequal pay today is in competitive sport, which is a ritualized form of warfare.

In most major sports, there are separate men’s and women’s teams and events, with lower standards of performance expected of women. For example, men’s tennis matches often comprise up to five sets, compared to three for women. The best men can beat the best women because they are stronger, hit the ball harder, and have more stamina. In swimming, the longest race for men is 1,500 meters, while for women it is 800 meters. One sport in which women compete equally with men is equestrianism – not just racing, but also dressage, show jumping, and three-day eventing.


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

The question is whether pay ought to be equal in an area in which performance is unequal “by nature.” In tennis, the principle of equal pay for unequal performance is accepted for grand slam events, but not for many others. Elsewhere, the gender pay gap remains striking, notably in football (soccer). The captain of England’s professional women’s team, Steph Houghton, is paid just £65,000 ($90,000) a year, whereas Neymar, the world’s most expensive male player, receives roughly 500 times as much. And while players in England’s women’s super league earn an annual wage of up to £35,000, Chelsea’s male players are paid, on average, a staggering £4.5 million.

One argument frequently made for equalizing pay is that sportswomen put in as much effort as sportsmen to produce their results. This harks back to the old labor theory of value, which contended that all value was created by work. But the link between hours of work and market prices is almost non-existent in practice, which is why economists needed a different explanation for market prices.

Economists today say that prices (including wages and salaries) are determined by consumer demand. What a thing costs depends not on the amount of time and effort spent producing it, but on what it is worth to the buyer. Male footballers are paid more than female players because their services are more in demand. If women’s football teams started paying their players the same as men’s teams, they would go bankrupt. Unemployment is the price of insisting on being paid above the “market-clearing” level.

Market prices, economists insist, do not measure moral worth but market worth. If we want market-determined rewards to equate with “just” rewards, we either have to abolish markets – the socialist solution – or restructure individual preferences.

One argument is that women in sport would command the same market price as men, if only structural gender biases, such as greater media coverage and sponsorship for men’s sports, were removed. Although market value may be determined by consumer demand, as economic theory has it, these preferences are themselves the result of socially structured gender biases. In the absence of these biases, demand for women’s sports – as measured by attendance at matches, television ratings, and so on – would equal demand for men’s sports.

This argument is based on the assumption – which extends far beyond sports – that real gender equality will not be achieved until the formation of tastes and habits is no longer subject to gender stereotypes. Boys would not automatically be given toy guns, while girls are given dolls.

This sounds reasonable enough, until one recognizes the lengths to which radical feminists are willing to go to re-engineer tastes and preferences. Language is being systematically purged of “gender bias.” University courses in humanities and social sciences are being subjected to implicit or explicit forms of gender censorship. Gender itself is increasingly seen as “socially constructed”; and children, therefore, should be encouraged to choose their own gender.

To me, the latest offensive against men is a good cause gone mad. But then, as a 78-year-old white male, I would think that, wouldn’t I?


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Republication forbidden. Copyright: Project Syndicate 2018 The Next Stage of Women’s Emancipation?

Robert Skidelsky

Robert Skidelsky, professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University and a fellow of the British Academy in history and economics, is the author of a three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes and a member of the British House of Lords.

You are here: Home / Politics / The Next Stage Of Women’s Emancipation?

Most Popular Posts

Visentini,ITUC,Qatar,Fight Impunity,50,000 Visentini, ‘Fight Impunity’, the ITUC and QatarFrank Hoffer
Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse
income inequality,inequality,Gini,1 per cent,elephant chart,elephant Global income inequality: time to revise the elephantBranko Milanovic

Most Recent Posts

transition,deindustrialisation,degradation,environment Europe’s industry and the ecological transitionCharlotte Bez and Lorenzo Feltrin
central and eastern Europe,unions,recognition Social dialogue in central and eastern EuropeMartin Myant
women soldiers,Ukraine Ukraine war: attitudes changing to women soldiersJennifer Mathers and Anna Kvit
military secrets,World Trade Organization,WTO,NATO,intellectual-property rights Military secrets and the World Trade OrganizationUgo Pagano
energy transition,Europe,wind and solar Europe’s energy transition starts to speed upDave Jones

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has been analysing the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the EU Social Imbalances Procedure and Open Strategic Autonomy paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Discover the new FEPS Progressive Yearbook and what 2023 has in store for us!

The Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2022, delivering insightful future-oriented analysis for the new year. It counts on renowned authors' contributions, including academics, politicians and analysts. This fourth edition is published in a time of war and, therefore, it mostly looks at the conflict itself, the actors involved and the implications for Europe.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube