3 - When will society be gender just?

Summary

The question of gender justice

In post-industrial liberal-democratic societies, opinions vary dramatically on whether these societies are gender just. Both scholars and the wider public disagree on this question. Newspaper articles, television programmes and other public debates indicate that gender inequality is not only a topical but also a controversial issue, on which many people have strong views. As Deborah Rhode argues, some claim that unjust inequalities between women and men no longer exist, or that women's liberation has achieved more than enough, and these days it is men who are suffering discrimination. Others disagree, and argue that unjust inequalities to the disadvantage of women remain, despite the post-feminist discourse.

One might expect that the literature in inequality studies, and related fields in the social sciences and political philosophy, would be able to assess these conflicting claims, and inform us on the nature and extent of unjust gender inequalities. Unfortunately, this is not really the case: there are very few systematic studies that provide a satisfying answer to this question. The reason for this is that an adequate answer to this question requires both normative theorising and empirical analysis. Normative political philosophers are concerned with the first, while social scientists specialise in empirical research. But most theoretical studies do not engage with empirical analysis, and most empirical studies are not based on a well-elaborated underlying theory of gender justice.