What are the Preconditions for Gender Equality?
Gender equality is an extremely low probability event. Humans have existed for around 300,000 years, yet for almost all that time ordinary women were at perennial risk of rape, beatings and enslavement. Precarity and multiple pregnancies also exacerbated women’s dependence on a male provider.
If he leaves, you’re screwed, so best be nice. 😀
The 20th century heralded tremendous disruption, with parts of the world witnessing incredible progress towards gender equality. Women’s equal rights and autonomy were recognised, both in law and practice. While these changes occurred very recently, they are actually the result of a very long and path-dependent process. The chance of actually getting to gender equality has always been very low.
What are the necessary precursors to gender equality?
Let me very crudely summarise the key foundations of gender equality, which provided latent assets for 21st century feminism. Lose one step and the likelihood becomes significantly lower.