Amartya Sen is one of few (Peter Timmer on agricultural development, being the other) economists that I always feel that bit wiser for having taken the time to read. A large bulk of Sen's writing is on inequality, poverty and famines and his latest collection of essays under the title of The Argumenative Indian also touch on these issues. It is his essay on gender inequality, Women and Men, that interested me most. While there is extreme gender inequality in places like India and China (survival and natality inequality), which he writes about vividly in relation to the millions of 'missing women', he does stress that gender inequality is not a social issue exclusive to either the developed or developing world, concluding,
'Gender inequality is a far-reaching societal impairment, not merely a special
deprivation of women. That social understanding is urgent as well as momentous.'
Anyone with an interest in gender would do well to read his framework and analysis of what he calls the six distinct faces of gender inequality: 1. Survival inequality, 2. Natality inequality, 3. Unequal facilities, 4. Ownership inequality, 5. Unequal sharing of household benefits and chores, and 6. Domestic violence and physical victimization. While there are obvious geographical patterns to faces 1 and 2 it would be very wrong to think places like Ireland, Europe or other economically advanced societies are generally free from many of the gender biases within the other groupings.
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