Globalization and Varieties of Modernity

Abstract

Global processes are restructuring inequalities in complex ways. Globalization has uneven impacts on social formations as a consequence of the path dependent nature of societal development and variations in the forms of modernity. The multiple varieties of modernity, including neoliberalism and social democracy, involve diverse forms of gender regime as well as diverse forms of capitalism. Including gender inequalities in addition to class alters how we see the nature and changing patterns of inequalities. The paper investigates the extent to which variations in the form of gender and class inequalities in employment and in welfare provision map onto each other, using data from OECD countries. Significant points of divergence are found, leading to the conclusion that conceptualisation and analysis of varieties of modernity should include a gender dimension and not presume that this is reducible to class.