Celine Bessiere and Sibylle Gollac, "The Gender of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality" (Harvard UP, 2023)
In many countries, property law grants equal rights to men and women. Why, then, do women still accumulate less wealth than men? Combining quantitative, ethnographic, and archival research,\xa0The Gender of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality\xa0(Harvard UP, 2023)\xa0explains how and why, in every class of society, women are economically disadvantaged with respect to their husbands, fathers, and brothers. The reasons lie with the unfair economic arrangements that play out in divorce proceedings, estate planning, and other crucial situations where law and family life intersect.\nC\xe9line Bessi\xe8re and Sibylle Gollac argue that, whatever the law intends, too many outcomes are imprinted with unthought sexism. In private decisions, old habits die hard: families continue to allocate resources disproportionately to benefit boys and men. Meanwhile, the legal profession remains in thrall to assumptions that reinforce gender inequality. Bessi\xe8re and Gollac marshal a range of economic data documenting these biases. They also examine scores of family histories and interview family members, lawyers, and notaries to identify the accounting tricks that tip the scales in favor of men.\nWomen across the class spectrum\u2014from poor single mothers to MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2014can face systematic economic disadvantages in divorce cases. The same is true in matters of inheritance and succession in family-owned businesses. Moreover, these disadvantages perpetuate broader social disparities beyond gender inequality. As Bessi\xe8re and Gollac make clear, the appropriation of capital by men has helped to secure the rigid hierarchies of contemporary class society itself.\nC\xe9line Bessi\xe8re is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris-Dauphine.\nSibylle Gollac is a researcher in sociology at the National Centre for Scientific Research.\xa0\nMorteza Hajizadeh\xa0is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th\xa0and 19th\xa0Century British Literature.\xa0YouTube channel.\xa0Twitter.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies