Introduction: Gender and Varieties of Economic Power – The Significance of Family and State

Abstract

The relationship between gender, family and employment is often depicted as the outcome of rational allocation between time in paid work and time spent on family-related tasks, such as household chores and care for children and other dependent persons (Becker, 1991). This balancing process may be framed in purely economic terms as a question of which spouse should be most active in the labour market when the goal is that of maximizing the total family income. It may also be conceived as deliberations over gender role norms (e.g. Petersen, 2002). If spouses have similar earning capacity, or if they accord relatively little importance to variation in pecuniary income, they may instead decide the employment pattern on the basis of norms of fairness or gender equality. In both cases the couple making the decision is portrayed as context-free actors maximizing a simple set of values: family income or gender equity.

Citation

Engelstad, F. and Teigen, M. (2012), "Introduction: Gender and Varieties of Economic Power – The Significance of Family and State", Engelstad, F. and Teigen, M. (Ed.) Firms, Boards and Gender Quotas: Comparative Perspectives (Comparative Social Research, Vol. 29), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. xi-xxi. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-6310(2012)0000029004