Gender, Inequality, and Capitalism: The "Varieties of Capitalism" and Women

Abstract

In this brief note, I would like to discuss possible future directions for studies that aim at gendering the varieties of capitalism (VOCs), as well as choices I have made in my own recent research. Before we proceed, however, let me provide a brief introduction to the VOC literature for those readers not familiar with it. The concept of the VOCs was originally developed to contrast two equally economically efficient institutional equilibria. Liberal market economies (LMEs) rely upon the market mechanism in the sense of neo-classical economics; and coordinated market economies (CMEs) rely upon on mutual cooperation among economic actors facilitated by dense networks of institutions. Countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and Sweden are generally considered to resemble CMEs, whereas the English-speaking countries resemble LMEs. One important idea behind the notion of institutional equilibrium is that any deviation from either of these two equilibria should result in less successful economies. France, Italy, and Spain have been cited as examples here. (True, these countries shared many of the institutions present in CMEs, but they lacked the cooperative industrial relations present in most CMEs. And, more importantly, their economies were not as successful as those of other CMEs.)