Family, economic inequalities and gender. A theoretical and methodological renewal in the social sciences

Session moderated by François Héran.
Each 30 minutepresentationis followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

Abstract

In the 1970s, in the wake of the struggle for the right to contraception and abortion, a whole generation of feminist researchers described the domestic exploitation of women's work, leading to a reconceptualization of work beyond the dichotomy between domestic and professional work, and to methods for quantifying and evaluating domestic work. For a variety of reasons, feminist studies' pioneering interest in the economic inequalities produced in the family has taken a back seat to inequalities in the professional sphere.
Since 2010, there has been a renewed focus in political debate and economics on economic inequalities in income and wealth. However, this attention is often confined to the study of wage inequalities, or even ignores the question of gender. However, new attention to wealth inequalities and the documented return of inheritance have helped to reaffirm the family institution as a key player in the economy, helping to produce strong socioeconomic inequalities and reinforce the boundaries between social classes. Today, it is no longer possible to think of the family as a " haven of peace " sheltered from the brutalities of capitalism .
The rediscovery of the conceptual toolbox of feminist studies has made it possible to offer a new grid for analyzing the family as a primordial instance of production, circulation, control and evaluation of wealth in the ^21st century. In various social science disciplines, gender has opened up the black box of intra-familial relations of power and domination - between parents and children, spouses and siblings - while at the same time making the link between economic inequality and physical and sexual violence. These new research questions call for a profound renewal of investigative methods : in particular, " lift the cache-sexe of the household ", to use Margaret Maruani's expression, to be able to measure inequality in women's and men's assets, question the formal equality of family law to better understand the inequalities in practice reproduced by legal and financial professionals.

Céline Bessière

Céline Bessière is interested in the economic and legal dimensions of the family : inheritance transfers, marital separations, organization of domestic economies, division of labor between spouses, transmission and operation of family businesses. Her current research focuses on gender and wealth accumulation in Europe. She is the author of several books, including Le Genre du capital. Comment la famille reproduit les inégalités, co-written with Sibylle Gollac (La Découverte, 2020 ; Harvard University Press for English adaptation in 2023) ;De génération en génération, arrangements de famille dans les entreprises viticoles de Cognac (Raisons d'agir, 2010). She is currently coordinating several journal issues : with Maude Pugliese (INRS Montréal), a special issue of Socio-Economic Review on the theme " Gender and Wealth Accumulation: an Intersectional and International Perspective " (to be published in 2024) ; with Hanna Kuusela and Katie Higgins an issue of the British Journal of Sociology on the theme " Families and Wealth " (to be published in 2025).