Book in Progress #6 - Gina Schouten

Liberalism, Neutrality, and the Gendered Division of Labor
Gina Schouten (Harvard)

The project of the book is to defend a certain set of progressive political interventions as legitimate exercises of coercive political power. The interventions tackle the gendered division of labor, which is widely regarded as the core of gender injustice. The process of gender equalization in domestic and paid labor allocations, which began decades ago, is stalled. A growing number of scholars argue that, absent political intervention, further eroding of the gendered division of labor will not be forthcoming anytime soon. Certain political interventions to promote gender egalitarianism could jumpstart the stalled gender revolution, but critics regard such political interventions as illegitimate exercises of political power. These critics seem to have a point. The interventions in question would effectively subsidize gender egalitarian lifestyles at a cost to those who prefer to maintain a traditional gendered division of labor. In a pluralistic, liberal society where many citizens reasonably resist the feminist agenda, can scarce public resources be used to finance coercive interventions to subsidize gender egalitarianism? I argue that they can, even by the lights of a particularly demanding theory of liberal legitimacy.

The workshop will focus on four chapters of the manuscript.

Attendance is free. Registration is not required but recommended in order to access the manuscript before the workshop.

To register, please send an email to danielle.zwarthoed[à]uclouvain.be after February 7.