Money, Sex and Power Equality and the Politics of (Re)Distribution : Week 2 2013-2014

1. Money, Sex and PowerEquality and the Politics of (Re)Distribution:Week 22013-2014

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. The family wage • 19th 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

8. 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

9. Problems of measuring inequality • Demand for equality in terms of income and wealth is distributionalequality – 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

10. 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

11. ‘Power to’ and ‘power over’ • ‘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

12. 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,27th 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.).

13. 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.