Globalization and Multiple Inequalities

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to investigate the implications of including multiple inequalities in addition to class for analyses of the implications of globalization for inequality.

Methodology/approach – The chapter addresses both conceptual and methodological issues in the analysis of changes in economic inequalities. It draws on comparative data of changes in class and gender economic inequalities using data from the World Bank, OECD, and Eurostat.

Findings – The chapter finds that gender and class inequalities have different trajectories of change, although they have implications for each other. This means that the analysis of globalization needs to analyze gender separately from class as well as their points of intersection in order to gain an accurate understanding of the changes in inequality that are linked to globalization. It is found that the complexity theory is very useful as an aid to theorizing intersectionality. It is found that the use of the distinction between neoliberal and social democratic forms of modernity aids the analysis.

Originality/value of chapter – The chapter provides an innovative analysis of the implications of including gender in analyses of global economic inequality, which has implications for the theorization of gender and intersectionality as well as of globalization.

Citation

Walby, S. (2011), "Globalization and Multiple Inequalities", Ngan-Ling Chow, E., Texler Segal, M. and Tan, L. (Ed.) Analyzing Gender, Intersectionality, and Multiple Inequalities: Global, Transnational and Local Contexts (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 17-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-2126(2011)0000015006