India's diamond industry is built on jati endogamy - finds Kaivan Munshi. Endogamy creates dense webs of obligation, improving information flows & reducing commitment problems. Jatis create trust partly by raising daughters to marry preferred grooms, and stay put, enduring any abuse.

Patriarchy doesn't just puff up men's egos, it also enables men to extract rents. My essay digs into abuse in Southern Rhodesia, India's diamond industry, and Britain's old boys clubs. www.ggd.world/p/patriarcha...

Patriarchy doesn't just puff up men's egos, it also enables men to extract rents. My essay digs into abuse in Southern Rhodesia, India's diamond industry, and Britain's old boys clubs. www.ggd.world/p/patriarcha...

Sub-Saharan Africans often valued 'wealth in people'. Women were especially valued, constituting the majority of slaves within Africa and commanding higher slave prices. Patriarchs then extracted rents by controlling that labour. www.ggd.world/p/are-queen-...

“Trawling through the primary sources, I realise that even when societies are given the maximum score for ‘female power’, they may still be extremely violent and patriarchal, whereby girls may be pawned, enslaved, genitally cut or otherwise expected to submit. It’s time for a corrective.”

Female Power for Whom? Queen mothers, pawned girls, and the limits of the Standard Cross Cultural Sample www.ggd.world/p/female-pow...

Female Power for Whom? Queen mothers, pawned girls, and the limits of the Standard Cross Cultural Sample www.ggd.world/p/female-pow...

Why Are Sub-Saharan Africa's Earliest States now Epicenters of Terrorism? My latest essay explores argues that early rulers embraced Islam, but states were too weak to overcome ethnic divisions. Jihadis now turns those old grievances into righteous, holy war. www.ggd.world/p/why-are-su...

Why Are Sub-Saharan Africa's Earliest States now Epicenters of Terrorism? My latest essay explores argues that early rulers embraced Islam, but states were too weak to overcome ethnic divisions. Jihadis now turns those old grievances into righteous, holy war. www.ggd.world/p/why-are-su...

Crudely, there are 3 kinds of society: - Seclusion patriarchies - Fraternal patriarchies, and - Gender equality For more details on Option 2, please see my latest essay on the Chinese civil service www.ggd.world/p/will-femal...

I would very much like to be friends with the people who understand the symbolism in this painting I edited... Made to illustrate Xiaoxia Huang's new paper :-) www.ggd.world/p/will-femal...

I would very much like to be friends with the people who understand the symbolism in this painting I edited... Made to illustrate Xiaoxia Huang's new paper :-) www.ggd.world/p/will-femal...

Female education is over-rated. Sure, it's a necessary condition for women's advance, But in seclusion patriarchies, educated women may remain economically inactive While in fraternal patriarchies, women work but are blocked from joining the upper ranks. Awesome new paper on China 👇

When Cities Outrun the State www.ggd.world/p/when-citie...

When Cities Outrun the State www.ggd.world/p/when-citie...

What's the most under-rated driver of gender equality? (In praise of job-creating economic growth) www.ggd.world/p/whats-the-...

Trader Joe’s does not pay me to make promotional adverts, But… Here’s my latest centre piece, made with 2 small bunches that anyone can pick up in store. (Made with floral sponge, so everything stays in place)

Really clear account from @draliceevans.bsky.social of why economic growth matters to gender equality and how the stats we commonly use may not be telling us what we think

What's the most under-rated driver of gender equality? (In praise of job-creating economic growth) www.ggd.world/p/whats-the-...

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...