Gender Norms and the Economy: Insights from Social Research

ABSTRACT

Feminist economics has taken up the concept of gender norms, most commonly conceived as a constraint on women's voice and gender equality. This contribution examines the concept of gender norms and summarizes key insights from sociology and other social sciences. Norms do not float free: they are materialized in specific domains of social life and are often embedded in institutions. An automatic process of “socialization” cannot explain the persistence of discriminatory norms. Norms change in multiple ways, both in response to broad socioeconomic change and from the dynamics of gender relations themselves. Restructuring of gender orders, and diversity and contradictions in gender norms, give scope for activism. The rich literature on normativity supports some but not all approaches in feminist economics and indicates new possibility for the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Norms
• gender relations
• feminist economics
• sociology
• interdisciplinary

JEL Codes:

• Z1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This contribution draws on sections of a report prepared for UN Women titled “Gender Norms and Stereotypes: A Survey of Concepts, Research, and Issues about Change.” We thank UN Women for commissioning this work, and all participants at the 2014 Expert Group Meeting, November 3–5, for thoughtful engagement with the issues. The views in this paper are those of the authors alone, and are not intended to represent the position of UN Women. We are pleased to acknowledge Liliana E. Correa, who provided expert research assistance in the preparation of the report.

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Rebecca Pearse is Research Associate at the University of Sydney. Her publications include a co-authored revision of Raewyn Connell's Gender: In World Perspective (3rd edition), and a number of works on social movements and the political economy of climate change.

Raewyn Connell is Professor Emerita at University of Sydney. She is an internationally renowned researcher in the fields of gender and sexuality, education, class, and intellectual work. Her previous publications include Masculinities, Gender and Power, Making the Difference, and Southern Theory.