Cordelia Fine's Blog
March 4, 2025
Presenting ... Patriarchy Inc.
Is there anything good about patriarchy? Well, it's a stretch, but at least when you start writing a book about patriarchy, you can be confident that it won't have been dismantled by the time you finish.
Tomorrow is UK publication day for my latest book Patriarchy Inc.: What We Get Wrong About Gender Equality – and Why Men Still Win at Work and, if anything, the topic feels more timely than when I began.
I wrote the book as an antidote to the way that our discussions about gender equality and work have been derailed by two false visions of gender equality.
The Different But Equal perspective reassures us that persistent gender gaps in who does what work, and what they get in return, are fair and natural. They simply reflect evolved sex differences in personality, and gender-neutral market mechanisms.
Meanwhile, the Business Case DEI approach to gender equality at work tells us that talking about 'equality' is very old-fashioned. We should be talking instead about the competitive advantage organizations can leverage by including women. Less What can business do for women? and more What can women do for business?
In short, one influential idea says there is no longer a gender inequality problem to solve, while the other has reframed it as the challenge of how to make more money out of women.
That's why my goals in writing Patriarchy Inc are:
Tomorrow is UK publication day for my latest book Patriarchy Inc.: What We Get Wrong About Gender Equality – and Why Men Still Win at Work and, if anything, the topic feels more timely than when I began.
I wrote the book as an antidote to the way that our discussions about gender equality and work have been derailed by two false visions of gender equality.
The Different But Equal perspective reassures us that persistent gender gaps in who does what work, and what they get in return, are fair and natural. They simply reflect evolved sex differences in personality, and gender-neutral market mechanisms.
Meanwhile, the Business Case DEI approach to gender equality at work tells us that talking about 'equality' is very old-fashioned. We should be talking instead about the competitive advantage organizations can leverage by including women. Less What can business do for women? and more What can women do for business?
In short, one influential idea says there is no longer a gender inequality problem to solve, while the other has reframed it as the challenge of how to make more money out of women.
That's why my goals in writing Patriarchy Inc are:
To explain why science doesn't support the Different But Equal Perspective;
To explain why Business Case DEI won't get us to gender equality;
To refurbish the concept of 'gender equality' in a way that can point us to effective, common-sense reforms that will make workplaces and society fairer and freer for everyone
