gender historians may say things like, "before patriarchal religions, women were spirit mediums!!" 💪 my friend... are you referring to old women who prepared special offerings to spirits in rocks and trees? with no special status or capacity to influence others? 🫤

How can researchers study sexual violence in countries where governments suppress data? www.ggd.world/p/towards-a-...

Rose heist!

Thank you to You Gov for collaborating in a new survey on male violence in the US! www.ggd.world/p/fight-club...

The barriers to gender equality vary worldwide. www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

To speed up progress towards gender equality, it would help to cast aside Western centrism and tackle local obstacles. Me, for @economist.com www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

“One-size-fits-all approaches are unhelpful” when it comes to discussing women’s rights, argues Alice Evans in a guest essay

Thank you to @economist.com for publishing my essay on "what people get wrong about women's rights"! www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

The absolutely crucial lesson from world history is that male violence runs rampant unless it is constrained by strong states with effective deterrents My essay 👇 www.ggd.world/p/broken-sku...

For a brief sliver of human history, modern economies generated mass demand for skills. But for most of our past, power and prestige flowed to those who could command organised violence and achieve military might. www.ggd.world/p/broken-sku...

In 1400, Oxford had a population of 6,000 and about 6 killings a year. Triple that of London and York. Why was it so violent? Students got off with impunity, as they had clerical privileges! Nice evidence on institutions

Very cool stuff here. Especially for an institutionalist, governance nerd like myself.

Broken Skulls and the State! My latest essay discusses 4 fantastic new datasets on skeletons, cranial trauma, and coroners' records - from Prehistory, the Middle East, Andes, and Medieval England When did violence spike? And why? www.ggd.world/p/broken-sku...

The under-rated subplot in Bridgerton is that it’s as recent as 1813, but girls from elite families are still not sent to school like their brothers, yet kept at home. Cue a very bored Hyacinth, who is desperate to make her debut, then finds boys are actually disappointing

Within the humanities there’s been a tendency to focus on marginal dynamics But this can skew our attention from major drivers of human history If you look back at early writing, it was often to celebrate imperial conquests Our history is fundamentally about armed struggle between warlords.

Crudely, we can cluster societies into 3 kinds: - Male supremacy, impunity and female seclusion (Afhganistan) - Male supremacy, impunity, but women work (Russia, China, South Korea, Thailand) - Women organise politically and constrain male violence (Canada) My essay www.ggd.world/p/can-women-...

Crudely, we can distinguish between 3 broad clusters - The most patriarchal societies safeguard male status via female seclusion - Others let women move freely, but men exercise impunity - In outliers, like Singapore, women have escaped family control and enjoy public safety

Can Women Walk Home Safely? My latest essay is on male violence in Guatemala, Haiti, Nigeria and Europe www.ggd.world/p/can-women-...

in hindsight, one could have imagined that COVID would only lead to a temporary downturn in demand for labour but a coordinated and sustained rise in technologies and entertainment that increase the appeal of solitude.

Pre-state societies were never feminist utopias, overflowing with milk and gender harmony. They were often violent and coercive. State control and pacification are crucial precursors to gender equality. My essay, www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...

we may have cultures that are matrilocal, or matrilineal, or that celebrate female freedom, or sexual agency, or have lots of little goddess-statues... but we must also ask "what about the violence." is violence or the threat of violence used to extract reproductive labor from women.

Trykker lidt på nogle etableret forestillinger "Economists may suggest that property ownership raises women’s bargaining power, but this surely breaks down if one can be captured and enslaved. Likewise, sexual permissiveness does not mean female agency when women may be abducted by male predators."

Stories about 'kick-ass' women from the past are often fun and exciting! One little problem: They neglect a wider context of male violence, aggressive and rape. www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...

Our conventional indicators of gender equality for pre-state societies are grossly misleading. By focusing on whether women could choose their own partners or own property, scholars have omitted a wider context of pervasive violence www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...

how do we "measure" patriarchy? this is especially thorny because of how much people are invested in mystifying and defending it--so e.g. "this culture LOVED women! therefore it can't be patriarchal!" evans, like myself, circles back to what we can measure: violence.

Male Violence and the Myth of Female Freedom www.ggd.world/p/male-viole...

If Turkey’s young women continue to culturally leapfrog, but men remain more conservative, then this will have major implications for coupling and fertility www.ggd.world/p/cultural-l...

‘Gaslighting’, ‘love-bombing’ and ‘toxic relationships’ have surged in online searches across Turkey. I call this "CULTURAL LEAPFROGGING" www.ggd.world/p/cultural-l...

Sexual abuse persists because humans repeatedly prioritise institutional self-preservation. Children - the most vulnerable members of our society - are then dismissed, disregarded and violated. www.ggd.world/p/what-do-ep...

Child sexual abuse persists because humans repeatedly prioritise institutional self-protection - whether that's elite networks, catholics cardinals, or progressives. P.s. you may not like this message, but nevertheless recognise it to be true. www.ggd.world/p/what-do-ep...

How can we prevent sexual abuse in the 21st century? My new blog open.substack.com/pub/dralicee...

What do Epstein's Emails, the Catholic Church & Grooming Gangs have in Common? www.ggd.world/p/what-do-ep...

What do Epstein's Emails, the Catholic Church & Grooming Gangs have in Common? www.ggd.world/p/what-do-ep...

Gang, I have an adventurous idea! Wish me luck! 🤟

In Putin's Russia, the courts have become feminised If one ran a cross-country regression, one might interpret this as an egalitarian triumph. But, if we understand country context, we realise that judges have been emasculated and disempowered.. Not much of a win. By @juliaioffe.bsky.social

Socialists may cheer for the USSR, citing high FLFP Sociologists say 'women worked a double shift' But perhaps the most visual example of patriarchy is near-absence of sanitary pads? (Male) planners disregarded women's health, no patent existed till 1985, forcing use of rags.

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia" by @juliaioffe.bsky.social is FANTASTIC. Best book on gender for 2025. Some gender books on Russia have been ideologically narrow, but this is superbly researched and extremely readable. Bravo!

“Ils ne vouloient que notre bien,” (They only wanted what was best for us - satirising clergy & nobility).

"Women cannot be useful to the progress of the arts” - declared the French Academy, in its ban. But.. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was admitted in 1783 advocated for women's inclusion. In this "Self-Portrait with Two Pupils", she directly faces the viewer (unusual at the time).

Between the 15-18th centuries, Tatar cavalry conducted more than 2,500 raids on over 800 settlements, 5 million people were abducted - taken as captives to the Black Sea ports for sale across the Ottoman Empire. (Charnysh & Lall 2024)

Writing was invented over 5000 years ago. Genuine question: how much of that corpus was written by women? I mean state decrees, law codes, record-keeping, religious texts, literature, contracts, letters.. My guess? Before 20th Century? Less than 1%?

Quiz: What is this? And why is it a useful artefact for anyone interested in the history of gender?

When I suggested that Latin America's high rate of femicides are primarily due to its exceptionally high violence, some pushed back. But Claudia Sheinbaum has reduced violence, and this has simultaneously led to a decline in femicides.

If you fail to understand the primary cause of contemporary patriarchy, you go chasing geese in the past. So many books write about concubines’ “agency”, yet omit wider ideologies.. And why her great-great-great-great-granddaughter is still secluded, at home, with no friends.

What are the origins of patriarchy? (Or is that the wrong question...?) Writing my book, cross-legged on the floor, scraping clues & fragments from every continent, till I cobble together the mosaic. 🧩🗺️

In the middle of listening, right now... this is VERY, VERY GOOD!

Just read the transcript of this. It is absolutely fascinating. Growing left-right gap in young people (even teens) is worldwide So many big changes happening at a rapid pace (e.g. fertility drop)

20% of young men in the UK are not in work or education, nor caring for anyone. Do economic frustrations drive political polarisation? But young women are actually more polarised, and often doing better. Is this due to online persuasion, mimetic copying, or less socialising??

As China’s exports come up against trade barriers, they’re offloading & flooding other countries. 🇮🇩 factories have increasingly closed - exacerbating a prior trend of automation, de-industrialisation, & stalled development. By Jon Emont, Ft @drodrik.bsky.social www.wsj.com/world/asia/t...

Are Men & Women Scrolling Apart? @jburnmurdoch.ft.com joins me to discuss gendered polarisation. - Does this hold worldwide? - Which groups are most polarised? - Is this due to economic frustrations or online persuasion? - What are the possible solutions? youtu.be/VrOk1-jChdA?...