The Gender of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality

Céline Bessière; Sibylle Gollac

Published by Harvard University Press 2023

The Gender of Capital

How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality

Céline Bessière and Sibylle Gollac
Translated by: Juliette Rogers

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674292796

Overview
Contents

About this book

In countries with officially egalitarian property law, women still accumulate less wealth than men. Combining quantitative, ethnographic, and archival research, The Gender of Capital explains how and why women of all classes are economically disadvantaged at crucial junctures in family life such as divorce, inheritance, and succession.

Reviews

A fantastic, must-read book. If you want to know why gender inequality in wealth remains enormously high, and even has risen in recent decades, this work should be at the top of your reading list. Bessière and Gollac deftly disentangle the complex processes of estate planning, divorce proceedings, and marital arrangements that have brought us to this point.
-- Thomas Piketty, author of A Brief History of Equality

The Gender of Capital is a rare gem. Illuminating entrenched social and legal practices, Bessière and Gollac expertly demonstrate the grip of gender inequality in shaping the transmission of wealth. Their discoveries deserve a broad audience, and undoubtedly will shape the direction of future research.
-- Viviana A. Zelizer, author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy

Richly documented and incisively argued, this book offers new insight into how unequal relations between women and men are reproduced over many generations. For those of us who have been doing feminist work for a long time, it offers welcome confirmation that gender is an important determinant of inequality, both within and across divisions of class.
-- Joan Wallach Scott, author of Sex and Secularism

An important new chapter in the history of wealth inequality. In a fascinating account of legal and family practices surrounding bequests and divorce, Bessière and Gollac reveal the mechanisms through which wealth accumulates mostly in the hands of men.
-- Jens Beckert, author of Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics

At last, a book that addresses the notable omission of gender from the conversation about wealth inequality. Taking seriously the contributions of 1970s and 1980s socialist feminists, Bessière and Gollac show how the practice of family and inheritance law drives the gender wealth gap. One can only hope that scholars in the United States will pursue future work following this model.
-- Cynthia Grant Bowman, author of Living Apart Together: Legal Protections for a New Form of Family

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface to the English Edition Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Family as an Economic Institution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. Family Reproduction versus Women’s Wealth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
3. Acquit the Strong and Condemn the Weak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
4. Sexist Accounting under Cover of Egalitarian Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
5. Tax Avoidance and Family Peace at the Expense of Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
6. Can the Courts Make Up for Wealth Inequality? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
7. The Particular Hardships of Proletarian Ex-Wives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
Statistical Appendixes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Ethnographic and Archival Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Pages
- Main content: 320
Keywords: tax; assets; family courts; marital breakdown; separation; marriage; sociology; domestic labor; social reproduction; household; parent; children; child support; poverty; income; heir; real estate; liquidation; employment; welfare; ownership; feminism

eBook

Published: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780674292796