Abstract
Our aim here is to strengthen the links between the world-systems perspective and research ongender inequality. Grounding our analysis in theories assessing the connections between genderrelationships and world-system processes, we empirically explore (]) the extent to whichwomen's status in nations overlaps with the world-system position of those nations and (2) theinfluence of women's status within nations on a variety of national characteristics. We find thatwomen's status has a moderately strong association with world-system position, which suggeststhat macro-comparative research may confound the respective effects on a variety of socialcharacteristics of women's status and world-system position if indicators of both factors are notincluded in analyses. We also find that, controlling for world-system position, GDP per capita,and urbanization, in nations where women have higher status (variously measured), total fertilityrates, infant mortality rates, military expenditures, and inflows of foreign direct investinent arelower, and public health care expenditures and per capita meat consumption are higher. Theseresults suggest that women's status likely has social effects that can be seen on the macro-level,and that world-systems analysts should pay more attention to theories of gender in their research.
Highlights
A decade ago, Wilma Dunaway (2001: 2) observed that "women are only a faint ghost in the world-system perspective." She noted that very few articles in the two leading journals in the field, Review and the Journal of World-Systems Research, addressed gendered exploitation, women, or households
A quick perusal of the tables of content of issues of these journals published since Dunaway presented her assessment demonstrates that not much has changed over the first decade of this century
It is clearly important to separate the effects of gender relationships from those of the factors that are typically directly included in world-system position indicators, such as the structure of trade networks and economic development
Summary
A decade ago, Wilma Dunaway (2001: 2) observed that "women are only a faint ghost in the world-system perspective." She noted that very few articles in the two leading journals in the field, Review and the Journal of World-Systems Research, addressed gendered exploitation, women, or households. We do this so as to expand the scope of the world-systems tradition and demonstrate the potential for macro-comparative empirical research to address questions about women's status and gender relationships.
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