Lucy’s Daughters
A History of Gender Relations
While some see gender inequality as a natural phenomenon, the history of economics reveals a very different story. Jan Luiten van Zanden’s research focuses on the complex interplay between the social status of women and economic development. In this panoramic work, he examines the historical roots of gender inequality throughout Eurasia, and its socio-economic consequences today.
Van Zanden argues that it was only with the rise of sedentary societies in the Middle East and Central Asia that gender inequality first took shape. Civilizations developing on the peripheries, meanwhile, maintained a greater level of gender equality, and the religions which developed in each region either conformed or co-evolved to mirror these pre-existing gender dynamics. Rather than technology, it was women’s stronger economic position during the Middle Ages in places like northwestern Europe or Japan that drove economic development and the emergence of democratic political systems. Riding on the prosperity of the industrial revolution, however, the 18th and 19th centuries saw the rise of domesticity and the bread-winner model, confining women largely to the home. It wasn’t until the 20th century that women began regaining their place in the workforce. That women ‘belong’ in the kitchen is then a relatively recent fabrication.
In one sense, Van Zanden provides a much-needed corrective to our picture of economic history by finally including women’s agency. However, Lucy’s Daughters is also about the far-reaching consequences – social, economic, political – of these historical roots. Van Zanden demonstrates that gender inequality is one of the main causes of poverty and political suppression.
Extends from the Palaeolithic to the present, from the Middle East to the United Kingdom, from Indonesia to Japan
Told from various angles, including religion, art, criminality, even international sport, to paint a panorama of gender relations and gender inequality
Nuanced and accessibly written, with an eye for the different kinds of patriarchy throughout time and place
“We know this, but it can’t be emphasised enough: the restriction of women’s freedoms isn’t a natural phenomenon. It isn’t the logical consequence of pregnancy or some other biological fact. And the oppressive patriarchy isn’t a consequence of agriculture. In a wonderfully concise overview book about prehistoric and historic gender relations, economic historian Jan Luiten van Zanden gives those myths short shrift.”
“Social inequality between men and women is a phenomenon with a long history. Jan Luiten van Zanden investigates why this relationship differs by culture and how patterns have emerged over time.”
